We have known for some time that our federal employees have cushy lives compared to the people for whom they work (us). What is particularly infuriating is that so many of them either don’t pay their taxes or are seriously delinquent on what they owe their employer—the federal government.
Recently, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration found in a new report showing that 6.9% of federal employees are delinquent on their IRS taxes. That amounts to about 215,000 employees. This is a marked increase in three short years from 4.9%. It is appalling that the rate was previously as high as it was, but it has now hit crisis level, seemingly with little or no consequences. This is in contrast to a 5% delinquency rate among the general population.
The number of delinquents exploded during the Biden administration, which was lax on enforcing anything for favored groups. We can only speculate as to why federal employees felt they had the right to forgo paying their taxes. It might be Biden allowing so many people to go without repaying their student loans that encouraged the government’s employees to skip payments.
The fascinating aspect of this is that these employees are W-2 wage earners who have withholding taken out of their paychecks. The government can easily enforce additional withholding to make sure its employees are in compliance. The feds can easily garnish workers’ wages, as they certainly know where they work. Indeed, the feds do this all the time to ordinary citizens.
Worse, about 2,000 of these culprits work for the IRS. It is estimated that their back debt is $50 million. As of 2024, the most recent year for which data is available, there are about 50 employees who have been delinquent for more than five years. Yet these people still work for the agency collecting taxes from the public. There have only been 20 employees terminated for nonpayment in recent years.
Nongovernmental professionals who help American citizens comply with the maze of tax laws to properly file their personal returns have significant requirements to stay current on their tax filings and payments.
The broadest manner in which the feds control tax preparers is through the Preparer Tax Identification Number (PTIN). These numbers became mandatory in 2010. It allows the feds to track anyone who is a preparer. The preparer must renew annually and must attest to the fact that he or she is current on tax filing and payments. If the preparer is not current, the preparer’s right to file taxes will be suspended.
Of course, we know it is illegal to lie to the federal government in these situations. As usual, the government likes to punish people with penalties. If someone files a return without a valid PTIN, there is a $530 penalty per return.
There is another mandatory number tax professionals receive to be able to file tax returns electronically. That number is an Electronic Filing Identification Number (EFIN). The IRS conducts continuous surveillance of tax preparers to monitor their compliance with tax laws and, if someone is not current, they will suspend the tax professional’s right to file.
There is an even higher standard for CPAs and tax attorneys. The IRS issues a document called Circular 230 for code of conduct for tax professionals. I once asked if there was a similar document for conduct of IRS employees. Not surprisingly, the answer was no. The failure to file or pay taxes can permanently disbar these professionals from representing clients or signing tax returns.
This is the way the government treats ordinary Americans regarding tax filings or delinquencies. It is an understatement to say that dealing with the IRS can be very harsh and incomprehensible. It would be nice to know if our federal employees delinquent on their taxes were receiving similarly harsh treatment for their errant liabilities.
When American citizens are working hard and complying with the tax laws, they should have no tolerance for their federal employees failing to file and pay their taxes on time. It seems natural that, in order to work for the federal government, employees should be current on their taxes, just like tax professionals must.
Working for the government is a privilege, not a right. To maintain that privilege, employees should be required to file and pay their taxes on time. Lax enforcement of this standard must end. The American people should demand this.
Bruce Bialosky is a former presidential appointee, a practicing CPA with a specialty on tax law and founder of the Republican Jewish Coalition of California.
Reprinted with permission from The Daily Signal by Bruce Bialosky.
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.
Simple. Tell them, “Come clean or lose position, pay and all benefits and entitlements. You have 6 months.” That’s more fair than what the IRS tells ordinary citizens.
I find this very interesting. I worked for the IRS 50 years ago and one of the requirements for being employed was to be audited for income tax compliance. It seems that we were monitored to make sure we filed and paid every year. If they’re not doing that anymore, they should start again.
Audit the IRS.
They get away with it because nobody in DC cares! As for having zero tolerance for this sort of behavior: the unions will never let that happen.
It’s way past time to start garnishing their wages. God bless America ????????????
Thank you for exposing to the public the double standards on law when it comes to “government employees.” Why does that NOT surprise me?!
Washington DC, DC stands for DISTRICT of CROOKS.
This over bloated, government cess pool of crooks, scammers, frauds, and lying lowlifes could easily function BETTER if a minimum of one-third of the slackers was immediately cut. This along with a 60+% cut of all congressional salaries.
Then those one third would have to get a REAL JOB in the PRIVATE SECTOR. But sadly, most would continue sucking off the engorged teat of the government. What a GINORMOUS SCAM FOR THE TAXPAYERS.
Just imagine if the old cliche ‘Liar Liar Pants on Fire” ever became a reality. Washington DC would instantaneously become an unquenchable INFERNO.
Or, if politician’s noses actually grew a millimeter every time they told a lie, they’d have noses 3,4 or 5+ miles long.
Garnish their wages? Fire them for stealing from the federal government? The real question is – why has it been allowed to get this bad?
When reading this article I became very angry. To learn how many Federal Employees are delinquent on or simply dont pay their income tax. I was a federal employee for a few years after I was Discharged from the USAF. I was used to busting my ass , working hard and playing hard. When I went to work for the Federal Government I learned that hard work was an unknown concept and sand bagging , goofing off, wasting time was the expected performance level. Id look around at the older workers and told myself there is no way I wanted to end up like them, like lost zombies, a safe steady paycheck nearly guaranteed employment for ever and a work ethic of a sloth. I was told to slow down when I was working , that I was making my co-workers look bad. I didnt last long , couldn’t take it, I quit and when I turned in my notice my boss said , ” We always loose the good ones “this told me that they managers know what goes on but are powerless to change it. SO It doesn’t surprise me at all to learn these lazy human sloths dont pay their taxes …
Incredible! is all I can say. Hopefully correcting this is in process at the fedeeral level. I will be bringing up this situation with all my state, county and local legislators at least for awareness. I can only imagine it is twice as bad at the state level (but I hope I am wrong)
Give them a time frame, 90 days to 6 months to get square or lose your job.
Another fraud found under Autopen. They allow the govt employees to skate on paying taxes like the Somalis stole from the govt. the hospice companies in CA. And many other states. Even IRS employees are not held to the strict standards as the CPA’s preparing your taxes or the tax payers in the general public. Autopen was getting bribes from communist China and from Russia, Roemenië and the Ukraine. USAid went to the representatives and the senators on the democrats side and govt jobs to their business donors passing money to the rep or senator that had secured that job in their state they represented. Largess, grift and fraud has been going on long enough time to arrest people. Including govt. employees who broke the law by skipping to pay taxes to the tune of 50 million dollars. Any democrat want to propose a bill to stop this or is it no big problem for you?
If all the delinquent taxpayers were forced to pay (including congress members as well), we wouldn’t be in debt nearly as far as we are. I hope VP Vance goes after this kind of laxness too.
Damn Deep State Swamp,same for CA Dem machine run too
MUST END
They either need to be fired or wages garnished. We the People don’t have the luxury of avoiding taxes.
Anybody else tired of fraud, schemes & back tax owing members of the federal government taking advantage of us? I know by God I am.
And all the while these elites whine TAX the rich. As far as I’m concerned, they are the rich with all the special interest groups paying them behind closed doors. F-em all.
I used to be a Federal employee. I did not have a cushy life, and still do not, and all the time I worked for the Feds I had to put up with constant razzing from relatives about working for “the enemy.”
I do not own a single penny in back taxes, and I did not when I was a Federal employee..
If you work for the IRS and don’t pay your taxes, you should be looking at the four walls of a prison cell. This is totally unacceptable.
As the wife of a 37 year federal employee, I can tell you he paid every penny he owed. Be careful of blanket statements, you offended a whole lot of hard working employees today.
The Biden admin had a field day casting aside rules for themselves (for thee but not for me) as they enforced and weaponized the rules for their opponents. They were a despicable and unethical (an understatement) government for 4 years while the puppet’s handlers enjoyed their power and had a ball. I hope they are now made accountable for their corruption — all of them! (Unfortunately we have seen nothing of the kind yet…)
I am not surprised!
It seems that ‘we the people are greatly deceived and taken advantage of. We are the gravy train that just keeps paying! Very sad, disgusting and disappointing to learn each day of a new found fraud!
i can only hope the IRS department and all employees will be among those investigated for fraud.
As long as they pay their UNION DUES, they will be OK! That’s the most important things for their liberal bosses and the Congressional DIMMS.
Round up the tax cheats. Charge them with Federal crimes. No Plea deals. Jail them. Take everything of value and have an auction. It is time to clean up the SWAMP!!!!!!!! AMEN MAGA MAGA MAGA
immediately garnish their pay!
fine the hell out of them,they do it to us.
Well, if we didn’t have an IRS Department, then we wouldn’t have this problem. I thought President Trump was going to eliminate the IRS or have them assigned to monitor the income from all the Tariff’s. What happened?
Put them on payment plans. That’s what I had to do. No relief.
Same treatment for all!
The simple truth is the US Govt doesn’t need most of the employees it has. Kick the leeches out into the real world and I doubt they qualify for anything much more than menial jobs.
Let the dogs out. Outrageous!
Soooooooooooo when will they be held accountable? Talk about discrimination rules for goven=rnment employees and rules for the common citizen. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, makes one wonder!
Communist-democrat bureaucrats run everything. They don’t have to follow the rules. They just enforce them against the people.
How disheartening, just to say the least, and, there is another tax aversion that bothers me, How can anyone be in debt to the IRS, for over 10K. and many boast of owing much more, but a company of tax accountants, lawyers and etc. can get the tax debt reduced or even eliminated.
Years ago I forgot to claim an interest payment of 7.31, and I got a letter in the mail, reminding me of the owed money, it must have cost the IRS more to collect, than they actually got from me. A letter from the IRS can be scary, but I am old enough to remember that supposedly, they work for me.
This is an outrage, and not the first time I have heard this, why cannot congress do something about this?
Several layers of remedies:
1) Replace federal income tax with a flat per capita poll tax. No proof of tax paid, no voter registration & federal officials, civil service, and contractors put on 6 month notice of suspension. This would require Constitutional Amendment.
2) Resume mandatory annual top-level tax audit of all federal officials, civil service & contractors. No proof of tax paid, federal officials, civil service, and contractors put on 6 month notice of suspension.
3) since by definition all federal officials, civil service & contractors earn taxable income, require them to provide a copy of their signed 1040 or request for extension to their Personnel Office NLT 15 July of the year.
Why aren’t these delinquent taxpayers who are Federal Employees taking advantage of the IRS’s payment plans to clear their tax debt? My opinion is that if they do not try to pay their back taxes just as every other American has to then as Federal Employees their wages should be garnished!!!!!
Does anyone in government obey laws? Reading daily news is depressing. The FED is a failed fiduciary of our tax monies. Every program give-away is now corrupt with rampant fraud. Why would Congress give away so much money with no guardrails for accountability? There is no point to the social programs they craft when the benefits are stolen. If there is ever a time for Convention of States to craft Constitutional amendments bringing government back to original limits, the time is NOW!
A stipulation of their employment needs to include “current on all past, present & future tax obligations”. Failure to include termination.
I worked for the IRS back in the 80s. They asked me at the interview if I owed them $. I said “yes but was paying what I could, every month, & I filed on time”. Thr interviewer said that was fine because now they would know my income. I worked, I paid them & everything worked out just fine.
Is there a different IRS? One for them and one for us ‘regular’ Folks out here.
Sure looks like it.
When you work in a position that does not hold you accountable for anything and your pay does not affect your employer’s bottom line, there is a tendency to do pretty much whatever you like.
Does our government never audit or verify any thing to ensure they are been paid what is due and that they are not sending money to frauderst?
Reports of money spent on waste has been in the news for many years. I hope something will now be done about it. But what happens when President Trump leaves office. Back to business as usual…
The very reason why we need to replace the IRS with the ERS.
We need to remember that old saw – “Who watches the watchers?”
The SWAMP protecting itself.
As a former federal employee I can say many jobs are not cushy and pay is not extravagant so your depiction of “federal employees” as a whole is totally misleading. 4.9% vs 5% -really? Federal employees ARE part of the general population. Yes govt is full of excess and waste, but that is your elected leaders fault.
A kick back for not charging certain people for financial privileges
Both my husband and I worked for the IRS. Employees tax returns are “marked” as such and subject to greater scrutiny than non-employees. If you so much as made a math error, they flagged your return and it was sent to your manager and you, at the very least, were counseled and it could possibly result in leave without pay, with a memo placed in your personnel file. They may have changed this policy, which was a little harsh, but certainly, if you didn’t pay your taxes, or was in arrears on a loan, you were in trouble.
I asked my first sergeant one time “don’t you get tired of all the bitching?” His answer was HELL NO! It’s when they stop I’m worried! Not Long!
You can not expect equal justice under the law when the felons and traders in this country police themselves!!