By Adam Andrzejewski for RealClearInvestigations
Topline: Almost 6,000 Inner Income Service staff and contractors owe $50 million in overdue taxes, in accordance with a federal audit revealed in July.
Key info: The tax-dodging staff symbolize 5% of the IRS workforce. Roughly two-thirds of them nonetheless shouldn’t have a plan in place to pay their taxes correctly.
Federal legislation requires the IRS to fireplace employees who deliberately don’t pay their taxes, however auditors stated, “this disciplinary action is not always enforced.”
The IRS disciplined 1,068 staff between October 2021 and April 2023 — together with 139 who “willfully” paid their taxes incorrectly — however solely 20 of them had been fired. Others had their instances “mitigated” as a result of that they had been working for the IRS for a very long time or had excessive job efficiency scores.
Seventy-six staff had been suspended, principally for 2 weeks or much less.
Auditors additionally discovered that the IRS rehired 397 staff and 115 contractors who beforehand had conduct points, together with 282 employees with multiple conduct or efficiency concern. The “conduct issues” ranged from unauthorized entry to taxpayer returns to sexual assault and prison 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 an entire had 149,000 staff 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 individuals in 2022, in accordance with payroll information at OpenTheBooks.com.
That features staff supposedly employed to assist taxpayers. The IRS’ “taxpayer experience officer” makes $200,000, and the “national 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.
Important quote: “Thank you for committing to ‘trying to rebuild trust’ in the IRS by holding the agency ‘accountable to taxpayers,’” Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) wrote in a letter to IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel. “Today is a great day to demonstrate the seriousness of that pledge by making the thousands of tax-evading tax collectors at the IRS either pay up or pack up. Taxpayers will never trust the IRS when the agency’s own auditors can’t even pass a tax audit.”
Sen. Ernst spearheaded the Congressional measure mandating the audit and main to those disclosures.
Abstract: It’s loopy to assume that almost 6,000 staff working for the tax assortment company – whose salaries are paid by laborious working taxpayers – are tax cheats!
The #WasteOfTheDay is delivered to you by CEO & founder, Adam Andrzejewski, with Jeremy Portnoy. Be taught extra at OpenTheBooks.com.
Syndicated with permission from RealClearWire.
