Over 800 IRS employees owe millions in back taxes after audits pushed by Ernst

[mystery-ak]

Over 800 IRS employees owe millions in back taxes after audits pushed by Ernst
By
Rachel Schilke
November 18, 2024 5:00 am
.

EXCLUSIVE — Over 800 Internal Revenue Service employees still owe millions in back taxes despite heavy criticism from Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), who is hoping the level of tax waste will be squashed by billionaire Elon Musk, the newly tapped co-leader of the Department of Government Efficiency.

In a letter to the Iowa senator sent on Nov. 8 and shared exclusively with the Washington Examiner, the IRS noted that of the 2,044 employees who reported having balances totaling more than $12 million, 860 employees still have not paid overdue taxes. Only 20 of the 70 employees who “willfully evaded” paying their taxes were removed.

“We haven’t seen a tax revolt like this since the Boston Tea Party,” Ernst said in a statement. “If hardworking Americans dodge taxes, they are faced with steep fines and imprisonment, but it appears that tax collectors in Washington believe those rules are for thee but not for me.”

A July report, requested by Ernst, found over 5,800 IRS and contractor employees owed nearly $50 million in overdue taxes. Only 20 of the agency’s employees who failed to pay taxes were terminated.

The July report prompted Ernst to introduce the Audit the IRS Act, which would require regular tax audits of agency employees and prohibit the IRS from hiring or continuing to employ tax evaders.

more
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/senate/3231378/over-800-irs-owe-millions-back-taxes-ernst-push-regular-audits/

[mountaineer]

There's a TBR thread from July describing how more than 3,800 IRS Employees owe $50 million in back taxes. Looks like the Biden administration didn't exactly do anything about it.

[IsailedawayfromFR]

Symptomatic of the problem with federal bureacracy.

The make 2X the wages/benefits of the rest of us yet still cheat on their taxes while forcing us to pay our taxes and their salary.

[Bigun]

WE will never again be a truly FREE people for so long as we continue to abide the Marxist Income tax and the IRS!


#Fairtax

[Kamaji]

The IRS, or more specifically the DOJ, doesn’t generally impose criminal penalties on anyone else, either, except in the most egregious of cases (except for lawyers, where they seem to be more willing to go to criminal sanctions more quickly).

And these IRS employees who have unpaid taxes have the same penalties and interest racking up that the rest of us are subject to - usually penalties at top out at 47.5% of the unpaid taxes, plus interest at the underpayment rate on the unpaid amounts. 

They would also generally be subject to enforced collection unless they managed to either enter into an installment payment arrangement with the IRS to pay it off in installments, or else managed to demonstrated that they qualified for currently not collectible status. 

It certainly doesn’t look good, and some sort of consequences beyond the mere penalties and interest might be appropriate, but these folks are not really playing Marie Antoinette to the rest of us.