Last year the quest was on to hire private bounty hunters to collect over $300 million in unpaid tax debt.

In March 2006 Linebarger, Goggan, Blair & Sampson was given a bounty-hunter contract to collect IRS debt. Linebarger was a controversial pick from the start. When it was awarded a contract, a competitor

"accused the company of offering illegal gifts and rigging bids to win collections contracts. Also, in 2002, a then-partner of the Linebarger firm was convicted in a San Antonio bribery scandal involving a city collections contract. "Of all the collection agencies to turn over taxpayers' private information, you couldn't have a worse candidate for the job," says Ridout, the consumer advocate."

Now Linebarger and the IRS have parted ways . . .

Last year, amidst controversy, the IRS began hiring private bounty hunters to collect tax debts.

The private collectors were to be paid 25 cents on the dollar.

While that may not sound like much, it is far higher than the cost of hiring regular IRS tax collectors.