By Adam Andrzejewski for RealClearInvestigations
Topline: Almost 6,000 Inner Income Service workers and contractors owe $50 million in overdue taxes, in keeping with a federal audit revealed in July.
Key information: The tax-dodging workers characterize 5% of the IRS workforce. Roughly two-thirds of them nonetheless should not have a plan in place to pay their taxes correctly.
Federal legislation requires the IRS to fireplace staff who deliberately don’t pay their taxes, however auditors stated, “this disciplinary motion just isn’t all the time enforced.”
The IRS disciplined 1,068 workers between October 2021 and April 2023 — together with 139 who “willfully” paid their taxes incorrectly — however solely 20 of them have been fired. Others had their circumstances “mitigated” as a result of they’d been working for the IRS for a very long time or had excessive job efficiency rankings.
Seventy-six workers have been suspended, principally for 2 weeks or much less.
Auditors additionally discovered that the IRS rehired 397 workers and 115 contractors who beforehand had conduct points, together with 282 staff with multiple conduct or efficiency concern. The “conduct points” ranged from unauthorized entry to taxpayer returns to sexual assault and felony behaviors. Eighty-five of them beforehand had points paying their taxes, and 306 had “unacceptable” job efficiency.
Background: A earlier audit discovered that the federal authorities as a complete had 149,000 workers with $1.5 billion in unpaid taxes in 2021.
In the meantime, on a regular basis residents proceed to fund the IRS’ $4.9 billion payroll. The company paid six-figure salaries to 11,846 folks in 2022, in keeping with payroll information at OpenTheBooks.com.
That features workers supposedly employed to assist taxpayers. The IRS’ “taxpayer expertise officer” makes $200,000, and the “nationwide taxpayer advocate” makes $203,000.
Search all federal, state and native authorities salaries and vendor spending with the AI search bot, Benjamin, at OpenTheBooks.com.
Vital quote: “Thanks for committing to ‘making an attempt to rebuild belief’ within the IRS by holding the company ‘accountable to taxpayers,’” Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) wrote in a letter to IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel. “In the present day is a good day to display the seriousness of that pledge by making the 1000’s of tax-evading tax collectors on the IRS both pay up or pack up. Taxpayers won’t ever belief the IRS when the company’s personal auditors can’t even go a tax audit.”
Sen. Ernst spearheaded the Congressional measure mandating the audit and main to those disclosures.
Abstract: It’s loopy to suppose that just about 6,000 workers working for the tax assortment company – whose salaries are paid by laborious working taxpayers – are tax cheats!
The #WasteOfTheDay is dropped at you by CEO & founder, Adam Andrzejewski, with Jeremy Portnoy. Study extra at OpenTheBooks.com.
Syndicated with permission from RealClearWire.
