Legislation that would prevent the Internal Revenue Service from privatizing tax collection was introduced in the House today. The bill, introduced by Representatives Rob Simmons of Connecticut and Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, comes as the IRS moves forward with plans to do just that. National Treasury Employees Union President Colleen M Kelly explains the potential impact of IRS plan:

[Kelly]: This is going to risk taxpayer privacy as well as invite aggressive collection tactics on the part of these collection agencies. they will be paid on a bounty of being able to keep up to 25 percent of whatever the collect.

In addition the IRS recently announced plans to cut more than 700 customer service positions and close nearly 100 taxpayer assistance centers. The centers assisted more than 7 million taxpayers in 2004. According to Kelly, the IRS has already begun implementation of these changes, with some of the more drastic reform coming as soon as six months from now.