A comparative analysis of privatized tax collection: The effects of privacy, communication, authority, and efficiency

The concept that the public will react negatively to private enterprise collecting tax liabilities has been used as a reason for denying privatized tax collection. More than four thousand taxpayers were questioned concerning their acceptance of private tax collectors. Comparison of attitudes toward both governmental and private tax collectors are presented. These attitudes include privacy, communication preference, authority acceptance, and perceived efficiency. Actual efficiency to collect taxes is also examined by analyzing the Private Sector Debt Collection Pilot Project.;In the arenas of privacy, communication, authority acceptance, and perceived efficiency, the public's perceptions of privatized collections were found to be significantly different from the public perception of government collections. Findings revealed privatized collection to be less acceptable than government collecting by a significant degree. However, efficiency to collect taxes through private services is demonstrated. Objectively, private industry could collect taxes as efficiently as the government, but the public does not perceive private collections as equal.;It is believed that the continued public perception of significant differences in privacy, communication, authority acceptance, and efficiency, will likely keep the business of tax collection solely a bureaucratic process.