Data on Back Taxes Owed and Delinquency Rates of Federal Employees
Wednesday, July 27th, 2016 @ 7:26PM
CFEG reports that it received information from the IRS pursuant to a FOIA request on March 30, 2015 seeking data pertaining to the amount owed by federal employees and retirees in unpaid taxes, the number of federal employees and retirees with unpaid taxes, the delinquency rates of federal employees and retirees at each of the federal agencies and programs and policies implemented by the IRS to improve collection.
CFEG highlights some of the data pertaining to amounts owed by employees of the Department of the Treasury, including the IRS. For example, as of September 30, 2014 the Department of the Treasury had 1,253 employees/taxpayers (unresolved accounts) that owed the Government $10,008,071.00. As of September 30, 2014 there were 3,091 Treasury employees/taxpayers (all accounts which include installment agreement accounts) that owed the Government $20,789,944.00. Notwithstanding the data in these materials, the IRS states that, “Employee tax compliance is a key foundation of the public’s trust in the IRS” and states that the agency is committed to “maintaining an effective process to address those employees who fail to meet their tax compliance responsibilities.”
Of all the federal agencies 304,665 employees/taxpayers (unresolved accounts) owed the Government $3,539,203,480.00. As of September 30, 2014 of all the federal agencies 532,779 employees/taxpayers (all accounts which include installment agreement accounts) owed the Government $5,415,368,451.00.
The IRS states that the “American public should expect a high degree of tax compliance by people receiving paychecks or pensions based on federal employment.” In 1993 the IRS set up the Federal Employee/Retiree Delinquency Initiative (FERDI) to improve tax compliance among federal employees and retirees. The IRS states that collection procedures are given a “higher priority to pursuing federal employee tax cases.” Despite these goals and initiatives of the IRS as of September 30, 2014, 532,779 federal employees (including civilian, military and retirees) owed the Government nearly $5.5 billion dollars in back taxes.
Posted by cfegov
Categories: IRS FOIA Documents
