IRS Private Debt Collection: Check Your Account

The Exclusions Do Not Act on Their Own

The law lists accounts that "shall not be eligible" for an agency. It gives you no right to demand anything. In practice, IRM 5.19.1.5.20.3.1 says an assigned account that later meets an exclusion goes back to the IRS. For six of the groups, the law covers a taxpayer "identified by the Secretary," which means the IRS. So tell the IRS which exclusion fits you and keep your proof ready.

The law calls a plan the agency offers an installment agreement too, but in IRS practice that plan does not move your account. IRM 5.19.1.5.20.6 says the account stays with the agency while the agency monitors those payments.

Which Accounts the Law Keeps Away From Agencies

IRC §6306(d) keeps out an account with a pending or active offer in compromise (a request to settle for less) or installment agreement (a monthly payment plan). It keeps out an innocent spouse case, where a spouse asks the IRS for relief from tax on a joint return. It keeps out an account under examination, litigation, criminal investigation or levy, and an account with an appeal properly underway.

Six groups of people come out too, once the IRS identifies them: someone who has died, someone under 18, someone in a designated combat zone, a victim of tax-related identity theft, and someone who gets substantially all of their income from Social Security disability or Supplemental Security Income. The sixth is someone whose adjusted gross income, a total on the tax return, is no more than 200 percent of the poverty level the IRS applies, for the latest year it has.

Which Accounts Go to an Agency

IRC §6306(c) calls an account inactive in three cases. The IRS removed it from active work for lack of resources or because it could not find you. Or more than 2 years passed since the IRS assessed the tax, meaning it formally recorded the debt, and no IRS employee has had the account. Or an IRS employee had it, and more than 365 days passed with no contact to move collection forward.

Under IRC §6306(b), the agency asks for full payment. If you cannot pay, it can offer a plan that pays the debt in full within 7 years. The IRS FAQ says the plan ends within seven years or by the collection expiration date. The IRS FAQ says an agency takes no enforcement action, such as a levy, which takes money from your pay or bank, or a Notice of Federal Tax Lien, a public claim on your property. The IRS itself still can.

Check Before You Pay

The IRS says two letters come before any agency contact: IRS Notice CP40 (CP140 for a business), then the agency’s own letter. If you represent the taxpayer, IRM 5.19.1.5.20.1 says you get both letters too. Both carry a taxpayer authentication number. On the call, you and the agency each give part of that number to confirm who you are.

The IRS page lists the three agencies it has used since September 23, 2021: CBE Group Inc. (800-910-5837), Coast Professional, Inc. (888-928-0510) and ConServe (844-853-4875). Your account transcript, a printout of your IRS account, also shows the assignment. Pay only the IRS, through its payment options or by a check to the "United States Treasury." The IRS FAQ says an agency never asks you to pay it directly or with gift cards or prepaid debit cards.

If you do not want to work with the agency, the IRS FAQ says to send that request to the agency in writing. IRM 5.19.1.5.20.4 tells IRS staff to send a caller who reports threats, a scam or a complaint about an agency to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) at 1-800-366-4484.

For a tax professional: IRM 5.19.1.5.20.2.1 lists the transcript codes. Transaction code (TC) 971 with action code 054 marks an account the IRS assigned to an agency. TC 971 action code 459 means the agency returned it, and TC 972 action code 054 means the IRS took it back. With either code on the account, the IRM tells staff to work it as a normal IRS account.

Common Questions