If you owe money to Inland Revenue, you might soon be contacted by Baycorp, chasing it.
IR is cracking down on tax compliance.
Earlier, it said it told 200 business owners that they should be able to use their multiple properties to clear their debts to IR.
It was also "actively monitoring" the border movements of the largest student loan debtors and contacting them when they arrived in New Zealand.
Now, it says it will use a third-party provider to contact about 3000 customers who owe less than $5000.
Spokesperson Jane Elley said it was not able to contact all those people one-on-one without a third party's help.
"We want to try to stop penalties and interest piling up on people and we also want to continue to find cost-effective ways to collect tax from those who owe it. We want to know if using a third-party provider is an efficient and effective way to support customers get their debt sorted," she said.
"We've worked successfully with Baycorp for a number of years collecting student loans overseas - that's why we've selected them for this pilot. We've carefully considered the privacy concerns in Baycorp undertaking this work, and we've wrapped appropriate security and legal protections around it. We're confident in the steps they have in place to protect taxpayer privacy."
Elley said Baycorp would contact customers by email, text message and phone to confirm the debt and promote IR's self-service options.
"Where self-service is not enough, customers will be referred to Inland Revenue."
She said IR was aware that people might worry about scam calls or be worried about online security.
They could call Inland Revenue to confirm the authenticity of callers.
"When contact is made, Baycorp won't ask people to click on a link to get to their accounts. There'll be no asking for credit card or bank account details; no threatening sudden arrest or pressure anyone to act immediately; and no asking for passwords."
