Program targets delinquent taxpayers

The state Department of Revenue, the Missouri Office of Prosecuting Services and the Nodaway County prosecuting attorney’s office are joining forces in an effort to collect more delinquent taxes.

Nodaway County Prosecuting Attorney Robert Rice said Wednesday that his office has entered into an agreement with MOPS under which the two agencies will work together in getting more tax deadbeats to pay up.

Twenty percent of the resulting collections, Rice said, will be split between MOPS and the prosecutor’s office with the rest going to the Department of Revenue.

Rice estimated the agreement will initially add $5,000 to $7,000 a year to the prosecutor’s budget without significantly increasing the office’s workload.

Most of the actual collection chores are to be handled by a MOPS-appointed special assistant prosecutor who will be responsible for Nodaway and other mostly rural counties across the state.

Rice said his sole obligations under the agreement should be limited to a few court appearances and some paperwork.

“From the prosecutor’s standpoint, the advantage is that there is essentially no overhead,” he said. “It doesn’t really add anything to what I already do.”

Though anticipated local revenue from the program is modest, Rice said stepping up delinquent tax collections in all of Missouri’s rural counties makes sense from a statewide perspective.

He said he gained some collections experience as a private-practice attorney, and recalled that such cases entail “a lot of work and time for a little bit of money coming in.”

It is hoped, Rice said, that assigning delinquent tax collections to a special assistant prosecutor responsible for multiple counties will help close cases that would otherwise bring in fewer state tax dollars than are spent pursuing them.

Start-up and maintenance expenditures for the program, such as staff and software costs, are being covered by MOPS, which is expected to handle most of the cases from Jefferson City.

However, Nodaway County has agreed to reimburse the special assistant prosecutor for expenses related to travel and court appearances.

Rice said one underlying justification for the program is that state Department of Revenue officials believe collection letters and other actions taken by prosecutors’ offices will carry more weight with delinquent taxpayers than similar efforts by DOR.