From the you-can’t-make-this-stuff-up department Mark Segraves of WTOP.com reports:
At a time when the White House is projecting the largest deficit in the nation’s history, Uncle Sam is trying to recover billions of dollars in unpaid taxes from its own employees.
Federal workers owe more than $3 billion in income taxes they failed to pay in 2008. According to Internal Revenue Service documents, 276,300 federal employees and retirees owe $3,042,200,000.
The IRS tracks the voluntary compliance rate of federal employees and retirees each year, and each year feds come up short.
The documents show delinquent employees from nearly every federal agency with more than 25 employees. Based on percentages, the Department of The Treasury, which includes the IRS, has the best compliance rate. Fewer than 1 percent of Treasury employees didn’t pay their taxes in 2008.
The IRS is the only federal agency where employees can be fired for not paying their taxes. The non-compliance rate for IRS employees in 2008 was 0.76 percent — down from 0.89 percent in 2007.
The agency with the most tax scofflaws is the U.S. Postal Service, with 28,913 employees who owe $297,933,756.
A tip of the hat to Glenn Reynolds, the Instapundit, who says:
Try a cabinet appointment — that seems to get ‘em to pay up.
1 response so far ↓
1 old Grandma // Sep 29, 2010 at 11:56 pm
Looks like there is a need for firing employess of the government who are not paying their back taxes. Or better yet, take 10 percent of their total monthly pay before other deductions until all owed is paid. Also, until the bill is paid have a requirement of 2 hours of community service each week.
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