700 IRS Workers Owe Millions In Back Taxes

700 IRS Workers Owe Millions In Back Taxes

A report released Wednesday has revealed that nearly seven hundred IRS employees (about five percent of the ninety-thousand Internal Revenue Service contracted workers) owe a combined $5.4 million in back taxes.

The report says that it is the responsibility of the IRS to make sure contractors are current and do not need to file back taxes. Incidentally, most of these workers are not enrolled in payment plans, despite the fact that this should make them ineligible for employment by the IRS.

The IRS is the only federal agency that requires its employees, including contractors, to comply with federal tax statutes, which means they must file on time and enroll in a payment plan if they are not completely paid up.

The report did say that the IRS is thorough in checking for compliance with new hires, but needs to improve on its monitoring of its workers’ adherence to federal tax laws throughout their employment.

As of June 2012, six-hundred and ninety-one IRS contract workers owed taxes that were not paid when due; three-hundred and fifty-two of them were not enrolled in a payment plan. This brings the delinquency rate to two point six percent. In 2011, by contrast, the average delinquency rate for all federal workers, including retirees, was at three point two percent. At the time, the Treasury Department reported the lowest rate, at one point one percent.

The IRS has stated that it will begin reviewing cases of delinquent taxes, as well as to take additional action “as necessary,” although what this means is still up in the air.

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