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A Step Closer to Prevent Closure of IRS Service Center in Philadelphia

WASHINGTON, DC- U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) today applauded the Senate Appropriations Committee for providing safeguards to prevent reductions in the workforce or elimination of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax centers.  Casey wrote a letter requesting the Committee to do so.

“I am pleased that the Appropriations Committee agreed to include the language I requested to halt closure of the Philadelphia Service Center,” Casey said.  “Closing this center could cause hundreds of Philadelphians to lose their jobs.”

 

Senator Casey organized the letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee that was also signed by Senators Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and John Kerry (D-MA).  The letter was sent on June 29th to Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government, and Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS), ranking member of the Subcommittee, urging them to block such cutbacks in Philadelphia, PA and Andover, Massachusetts. 

 

The language in the in the report that accompanies the Appropriations bill states that no funds would be made available to make personnel changes or close facilities by the IRS until the IRS submits a formal report to Congress defending its actions.  This request appears in the Committee’s recommendations for the budget for Fiscal Year 2008.

 

In the letter, Senator Casey spoke out against the Bush Administration’s plan for the IRS to move towards contracting the collection of tax debt to private contractors.   The Bush decision triggered plans to close the tax service center in Philadelphia.    

 

Casey adds, “Outsourcing these jobs doesn’t make sense for taxpayers from a fiscal or privacy perspective.  Private tax collectors only return $4 for every dollar spent, while IRS employees collect $15 for every dollar spent without disclosing sensitive taxpayer information to private companies.”

 

 

Casey wrote:

 

“Employees at IRS facilities in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts have expressed concerns about an IRS plan to reduce the workforce at the IRS Service Centers in Philadelphia and Andover,” Senator Casey wrote.  “We share these concerns.  At the same time that the IRS is eliminating these positions, it is attempting to proceed with a plan to outsource collection of owed taxes to private contractors.”

 

Casey’s requests, which appear in the Committee’s recommendations, are as follows:

 

“The Committee is concerned about potential reduction or elimination of submission processing activities, including reductions in force, at the IRS Philadelphia and Andover Service Centers.  The Committee includes bill language precluding the IRS from spending any funds on any such reduction or elimination until the IRS has submitted to the House and Senate Appropriations Committee a detailed report that reviews the potential for transferring submission processing employees to Automated Collection System (ACS) positions within their commuting area.  The Committee directs that this report shall include an estimate of additional ACS positions that could be funded including training costs, with levels of funding the IRS expects to spend for activities under 26 U.S.C. 6306; an estimate of the increased collections for fiscal year 2008 and from fiscal year 2008 through fiscal year 2012 due to these increased ACS positions; and an assessment of placement of additional ACS positions in Philadelphia and Andover Service Centers.”  

   

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