Truce on IRS Debt Collection Program Wrapped Into Bipartisan Bill (2)

A tax administration bill rolled out by a bipartisan group of tax writers includes a compromise provision on the Internal Revenue Service’s contentious debt collection program.

The bill would bar the agency from referring debt to private debt collectors if a taxpayer’s income is below 200 percent of the federal poverty level. An earlier version of the legislation had set the threshold at 250 percent.

The 200 percent threshold was in the version (H.R. 7227) that the House passed last year. The five-week government shutdown quashed any chance of that legislation passing the Senate.