North Texas

Calls About IRS Debt? They May Not All Be Scams

For years the Internal Revenue Service has said that IRS agents would not call anyone claiming they owe tax money.

But times have changed, and the IRS has entered into contracts with debt collectors – private companies – that typically call you and try to get you to pay your bill.

It's only for older cases where the IRS has been unable to find you or interact with you. And that's not entirely new.

The IRS has told us this before.

"It's not out of the realm of possibility to eventually get a phone call from IRS after notices go ignored," said Clay Sanford, spokesperson for the IRS.

Only now the agency is using private companies to do it. The IRS says you will still get written letters from the agency before the calls start coming. But the companies won't be taking payments. They'll be locating you, but you must make those payments on the IRS website, not to the debt collectors themselves.

Any attempts to get you to wire money or turn over credit card information should still be considered a scam and should be ignored.

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