The IRS is beginning to use private debt collectors

The IRS is beginning to use private debt collectors to collect unpaid income taxes.  Attorney Charlie Price is a tax lawyer in Orlando.  Traditionally, we have told you that the IRS never calls you to collect, but that may be changing.  However, still be wary of any calls claiming to be from the IRS because there are plenty of scammers out there.

Attorney Tom Olsen: My name is Tom Olsen, and the name of the show is Olsen on Law every Saturday at 11:00 AM right here on the News 96.5. We're coming up to you live today. I want to introduce to you Attorney Charlie Price of the Price Law Firm in Orlando. He's been a Florida attorney for more than 25 years and specializes in tax resolution and debt problems. Charlie is the author of the book; I Can't Pay The IRS, Now What? The ultimate inside this guide is solving your tax problems.

Charlie focuses exclusively on helping out which consumers, self-employed people, and small businesses where they've tax problems. I asked Charlie to come on here today and talk to us because I have gotten a question that I thought Charlie could handle for us. Hello, Charlie?

Attorney Charlie Price: Good morning Tom, how are you?

Attorney Tom Olsen: I'm doing great, thank you. Charlie you know, I got a call from somebody telling me that they had a collection agency calling them to try and collect the unpaid income taxes. I'd never heard of such a thing, is that such a thing possible?

Attorney Charlie Price: It is when it's coming. Probably what they just heard was still a scam, and this is one of the biggest things I'm really concerned about. The IRS now is going to -- once again, they've tried this in the past -- bring in private collectors to call people with tax debt. Now, the problem with that is you, and I have talked about this a few times which is the scams that people get. They get people calling them and, "Hey, you owe us money." And it's a scam.

Now, you're not going to know if it's scam or not because it might legitimately be a collector calling on behalf of the IRS. The IRS is sending out a notice to people telling them that they're going to refer them to a private collector and the collector is supposed to send out a notice as well. But I think it will be a lot of confusion, and I think there's going to be some problems, Tom.

Attorney Tom Olsen: Historically we told people that the IRS never calls you or rarely calls you but now you might have a collection agency calling to collect back taxes. If you got a call like that, how would know who's legitimate and who's not legitimate?

Attorney Charlie Price: I think the only way you could do it is to contact the IRS directly to ask them if, in fact, you received a call from a collector that have been assigned to your case.

Attorney Tom Olsen: I think the other thing they'd have to double check is, let's say it was a collector and now they're making arrangements of how you might get some money to the IRS. How do you think that they would ask you to a write a check payable to the IRS or back taxes, would it be to the collection agency or would you little be banking your check payable to the IRS?

Attorney Tom Olsen: I don't think that they've specify that in the reds yet. Now, the only thing that they've specified so far is that they won't ask you for a prepaid debit card but they'll send the check and/or you go on to the pay.gov site. I believe that it's going to be made out directly to the Internal Revenue Service. That might be another way of determining. They're asking you to make it out to Joe Schmoe versus the Internal Revenue Service that might be a good clue you're getting scammed.