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| 2009 Pay Raise: 4.2 Percent for Chapter 47 Members | Taxpayer Advocate: IRS Outperforms Private Tax Collectors | |
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Washington, D.C.—Nationwide the federal workforce will see a 3.9 percent increase in pay rates for 2009; in New York, pay rates will rise 4.2 percent, including the locality pay increase. The 3.9 percent increase is a full percentage point greater than that proposed by President Bush. NTEU engaged in a lengthy and successful effort convincing Congress to approve a higher rase than that sought by the Bush administration. NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley said "Our success reflects a growing bipartisan understanding among members of Congress of the vital role federal workers play in delivering services to our country and the need to offer a fair and competitive pay rate that reflects the contributions thes workers make to their agencies and to the public." She added, I am hopeful that it will assist federal agencies in their ongoing recruiting and retention efforts. The pay increase provides pay parity between federal civilian pay and military pay, as well as begin to help federal civilian pay catch up to private sector workers. The 3.9 percent increase in military pay is also greater than the 3.5 percent raise requested by the Bush administration. |
Using Internal Revenue Service (IRS) data comparing private tax collection firms the IRS hired to collect taxes with IRS employees, the National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson concluded that the IRS is "far superior" in collecting revenue and resolving cases sooner, preventing increased interest payments and penalties to taxpayers. NTEU President Colleen Kelley referred to the study and Olsons analysis stating, "It is a faulty assumption that privat industry always knows better. The IRS is now assisting the PCAs on improving their own collection practices and paying for the privilege." Since its inception, the IRS has spent approximately $80 million to set up and administer the privatized tax collection program but the program only produced about $60 million in revenue. The private tax collection firms were paid almost $13 million in commissions. Private tax collection firms are paid up to 25 percent on the revenue collected. IRS Congressional testimony stated that the projected revenue for the private tax collection program was $65 million in 2007 and up to $127 million in 2008. Clearly, the data shows that IRS tax collection is superior to PCAs. Olson observed, that keeping tax collection inside the IRS benefits the IRS and taxpayers alike. TIGTA (Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration) also reported serious problems with IRS use of private tax collectors. The report noted continuing taxpayer discomfort over sharing confidential information with private debt collectors. NTEU has voiced concern over taxpayer privacy and taxpayer rights since privatization was first proposed. |
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