One piece of tax legislation introduced by Senator Ron Wyden after he took the helm of the Senate Finance Committee is the EXPIRE Act, whose primary purpose is to extend various expiring provisions of the Internal Revenue Code. The proposed legislation, however, contains several non-extender revenue provisions, one of which, Section 304, would require the IRS to use private collectors for certain types of tax debts. Section 304 is couched in the imperative mandatory language of "shall," thereby removing much discretion from the IRS.  From the accompanying Finance Committee Report, one must inescapably infer that the nondiscretionary mandate of the bill is deliberate and intentional: "The Committee believes that the use of private debt collection agencies will help facilitate the collection of taxes owed to the Government.  The Committee also believes that the safeguards it has incorporated, such as narrowing the class of receivables subject to collection...(Read Full Post)