And enlist private debt collectors to help track down your old debts. If you're a doctor, they want to seize your Medicare payments. They'd also like a bit more information about the mortgage interest tax deduction you're claiming.

Congress may be deadlocked over tax increases, but lawmakers are finding lots of agreement on another way to raise revenue: throwing the book at tax dodgers.

"Making cheaters pay their taxes is way more attractive than making honest taxpayers pay more," said Len Burman, head of the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center.

What's prompting the quiet outbreak of bipartisanship?

They need money.