IRS debt collectors could soon begin hounding you again if you owe an overdue a tax bill

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) was one of many government agencies that scaled back operations during the pandemic. But it’s ramping back up again, with $80 billion in fresh funding, and for Americans who may owe back taxes or who may have otherwise benefitted in some way from relatively lax enforcement over the past few years, it may be time to prepare to pay the piper.



In a recent blog post, the Taxpayer Advocate Service—an independent office within the IRS that pushes for the fair treatment of taxpayers, among other things—warned taxpayers of the consequences of failing to file their tax return by Tax Day, which is April 18 this year. While that is important and taxpayers can and do face consequences for failing to file or filing late, there was another critical piece of information in the blog post: The IRS is set to assume “normal operations” that were suspended during the pandemic.



“To provide relief to taxpayers during the COVID-19 crises, on March 25, 2020, the IRS took steps to suspend some compliance actions and later expanded this relief in February 2022. These actions included the suspension of some collection notices, such as lien and levy notices,” the post reads. “As the IRS returns to normal operations, collection activities will resume.”



That means that some taxpayers who owe back taxes or who have otherwise been able to dodge the collection process over the past couple of years may want to prepare themselves for contact—from the IRS itself or debt collectors.



Fast Company has reached out to the IRS to ask for more details about the agency’s timeline for increasing its collection operations. We will update this post if we hear back.



The IRS will send out balance notices before collection notices, the blog post says, adding that the “absolute worst thing taxpayers can do would be to ignore these balance due notices or any other IRS letters or notices.” Accordingly, if you do owe the IRS some money, it’s probably a good idea to go through the proper channels to figure out your options, even if you can’t necessarily pay off the entire balance.



Drawing the ire of the federal government’s tax-collection agency may be panic-inducing, but the IRS also gives you options, such as agreeing to installment plans, or even applying for penalty relief under certain circumstances. But the main point here is that the agency has been fairly lenient over the past few years and is now getting set to ramp things back up.



Also worth noting: There’s a case currently in front of the Supreme Court that will further outline how aggressive the agency can be when trying to hunt down delinquent taxpayers. However, for those who owe money, that’s likely to have little, if any, effect on their current tax troubles.



As such, the best course of action is likely to file your 2023 return by Tuesday and keep an eye out for any notices from the IRS. Because, again, ignoring the tax man isn’t going to make tax problems go away.