A new report from the IRS shows that current and former federal employees collectively owe $3,539,203,480 in unpaid taxes as of the end of FY 2014.
Out of this total number, $1,141,622,621 is owed by civilian employees, $602,698,872 by retired civilian employees, and the remainder by active and retired military members.
Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) has been vocal about disciplining federal workers who are delinquent on their taxes. He has called in the past for firing tax delinquent federal employees.
Chaffetz is also the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman, and he will be holding markup hearings for several bills this week, one of which is the Federal Employee Tax Accountability Act of 2015 (S 303), a bill which would make federal employees with seriously delinquent tax debt ineligible to receive bonuses.
“It is an honor and a privilege to serve in the federal workforce. It is disconcerting that federal civilian employees owe more than one billion dollars in back taxes. These employees are not exempt from their civic responsibility to fulfill tax obligations and those who refuse to pay what they owe should be held accountable,” said Chairman Chaffetz.
One recent solution put in place to address the number of tax delinquencies is to allow garnishing money from federal employees’ TSP accounts. The Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board (FRTIB) issued a final rule last September in the Federal Register that makes TSP accounts subject to federal tax levies.
The complete tax delinquency report from the IRS is included below.
