The State Revenue Office in Victoria, Australia will provide a private collection agency with personal information on up to 36,000 taxpayers - including their name, last-known address and amount of debt and date of assessment - as part of a crackdown on debts owed to the state's government. Victoria is located in southeastern Australia.
The government plans to offer a contract valued at $2.5 million for three years (with an option to extend) for an agency to recover delinquent land tax, payroll and other tax debts owed to the Victorian government.
The debts, ranging from $200 to $10,000, amounted to a total of $30 million last financial year, up $6.6 million from the year before. Another $132 million was recorded as disputed debt, according to the office's annual review.
The anticipated contract is much larger than the $800,000 paid to the previous agency, Bridgement Smith Collections, over four years. Last financial year the State Revenue Office wrote off $24 million in land and payroll tax debt, after ''all reasonable recovery steps'' had been taken, its review said.
The contract would be in addition to an estimated $90 million the government hopes to recover from property owners falsely claiming to live in investment and holiday homes to avoid land tax bills.
