About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline

B-202109 1 (1981-07-09)

handle is hein.gao/gaobabkcg0001 and id is 1 raw text is: 

             .  a--                                                        060 .
T.--..
     - JCOMPTROLLER GEN_.-RAL OF THE UNITED STATES
                                    WAS741rNGYrON D.C. 2O0S





 B-202109


 The Honorable Jack Brooks
 Chairman, Committee on Government
   Operations
 House of Representatives

 Dear Mr. Chairman:

      By letter of June 4, 1981, you requested our! views on House
 bill 374l,t97th Congress, Ist Session, a bill to increase the efficiency
 of Government-wide efforts to collect debts owed the United States.

      On November 19 and 20, 1980, and April 23, 1981, we testified before
 the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs in support of earlier legis-
 lative proposals, including Senate bill 3160 (96th), Senate bill 591 (97th),
 and the proposals then under consideration by the Administration, all of
 which included provisions similar to several of the provisions in House
 bill 3741. We have provided you with comments on House bills 749, 1243,
 and 2811 that also contained similar provisions. In these comments, we
 proposed additional legislation to strenthen debt collection. Some of
 these proposals have been included in House bill 3741. Also, many of
 our earlier suggested language changes and other comments have been
 incorporated in House bill 3741.

      We support the purpose of the proposed legislation. It would
 remove a number of current impediments to Federal collection efforts
 and provide needed additional collection tools. In addition, we
 recommend that the bill include a provision for offset of delinquent
 debts against Federal tax refunds due to debtors and additional
 language to strengthen sections 3 and 7.

 Offset of Federal Tax Refunds

      Federal tax refunds are routinely made to many individuals who have
 not paid debts owed the Government. In March 1979 we reported to the
 Congress 1/ that of a sample of 613 terminated debts totaling $431,000,
 up to $153,000, or 36 percent, could have been collected over a 2-year
 period by reducing the debtors' tax refunds. We recommended that, on a
 .test basis, delinquent nontax receivables be collected by reducing future
 income tax refunds due the debtors.



 /-The Government Can Collect Many Delinquent Debts by Keeping
    Federal Tax Refunds as Offsets, (FGMSD 79-19, March 9, 1979).

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Contact us for annual subscription options:

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

profiles profiles most