Standards for the Administrative Collection of Claims

The Federal Claims Collection Standards (FCCS), provide governmentwide debt collection procedures and policies for agencies collecting non-tax debts owed to the United States. This rule revises part 901, which specifies the order in which a federal agency is required to apply a partial or installment payment to the various components of a delinquent, non-tax debt owed to the United States. Under the current rule, payments are required to be applied first to penalties, then to administrative costs, then to interest, and last to principal. As revised, the rule would require agencies to apply payments first to administrative costs that are paid out of amounts collected from the debtor (referred to as "contingency fees") when such costs are added to the debt, second to penalties, third to administrative costs other than contingency fees, fourth to interest, and last to principal. Additionally, the term "administrative charges" is being replaced with "administrative costs" for consistency and clarity.