Biggest tax cheats? Federal employees.
The other day we learned that Federal employees continue to get cost-of-living pay raises, even though the cost of living doesn’t rise. Today, we learn that Federal employees are some of the biggest tax cheats, too;
Federal workers owe more than $3 billion in income taxes they failed to pay in 2008. According to Internal Revenue Service documents, 276,300 federal employees and retirees owe $3,042,200,000.
You’d think the IRS and Congress would be free of this type of fraud, wouldn’t you? You’d be wrong;
The IRS is the only federal agency where employees can be fired for not paying their taxes. The non-compliance rate for IRS employees in 2008 was 0.76 percent — down from 0.89 percent in 2007.
# Executive Office of the President (includes the White House): 50 employees owe $812,917;
# U.S. Senate: 231 employees owe $2,469,026;
# U.S. House of Representatives: 447 employees owe $5,809,631;
OF course, the Feds claim they can’t fire their employees for not paying their taxes – apparently they don’t make it the least bit uncomfortable for them, either.
Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden, Congress sucks, Economy
I guess this is what is known as Do as I say, not as I do, Hmmm? Whatever happened to leading by example? Oh, I know. It’s only when it is convenient. Shame. If I thought I could get away with it…
hmmm, this is difficult. First, I am a federal employee, I work for a little known agency that recoups the governments money (read: pays for itself), NOT the IRS.
I think it is absolutely ridiculous that FED employees are not fired for not paying their taxes.
I do know that I passed up a higher paying job to come serve the people.
My decision was simple. I could go work for more money now, but risk the fluctuations in the private sector. Sure, there is a higher growth potential and faster promotion, but I could be out of a job on any given day.
Or, I could take a lower paying job that is more stable; slower promotions and the stigma of being a bureaucrat, but stable.
As an accountant the choice was easy, take the lower risk job.
Now unfortunately the federal government employees a huge number of people and unfortunately a lot of people in the federal govt. wouldn’t know public service if it jumped up and bit them.
All I am trying to say is: keep in mind that not all fed employees are dirt bags.
Shoot, I don’t think I need to remind anyone here that the term Blue Falcon was invented in the military. Proving that every group has bad people.
Let me clarify, I am a DoD civillian… As noted in the previous Dick Smith post, defense spending is the only kind of spending POTUS doesn’t seem to like.
“OF course, the Feds claim they can’t fire their employees for not paying their taxes”
Seems like you can’t fire them for anything else, so why would that be different?
It never takes the IRS more than a few weeks to find if we have any errors in our returns. A 3 billion dollar failure to pay is a little hard to take.
I have no problem with the fact that not all fed workers are losers, tax cheats or whatever.
What I want is that the rules apply all across the board. If Rangel, Geithner, and others get to pay taxes late and have to be “caught” later on, with a hand-slap, how is it Joe America can end up losing everything while these losers IN OFFICE representing the people are allowed to subvert the laws?
And today we all get our letter from the gummint that sez that there’ll be no COLA this year, so no raise in benefits, but our medical fee will rise, thus lowering our “net check”. All because there was no rise in CPI. However these bureaucrats and their fellow fed employees got a pay raise to keep up with the cost of living. And they think that we will just STFU and take this?
Simply handled by: “If he/she is incumbant, vote them out, now!”
Never in history, no matter how sorry the administration, has the gumming scrued the people so rampantly, so deeply, and all without a damned bit of foreplay.
“Never Forget Ft. Hood Texas 11/5/09!”
And to rub salt in the wound, 350,000 Fed employees get $100k+ salaries. That’s 35 Billion bucks.
VOTE every incumbent OUT!!! Then after a supermajority in both houses is achieved, eliminate or severely reduce (50% minimum) in size the Departments of Education, HHS, HUD, the EPA, IRS (after a flat 10% national sales tax is enacted – no exemptions), Constitutional Amendments forbidding the attachment of any Rider not plainly Germane to a given Bill, requiring proof of citizenship to vote, requiring 75% majorities to enact tax increases, simple majorities to enact tax decreases and absolute requirements that all Governments, at all levels within the Jurisdiction of the United States, CANNOT, under ANY circumstances resort to deficit spending.
Finally, a Constitutional Amendment limiting Senators to two terms, Representatives to four terms and prohibiting any pensions or any other type of support using Public Monies for any holder of Public Office at any level of government within the Jurisdiction of the United States. Enact a Bill eliminating all pensions for holders of Public Office effective retroactively to 1990.
To be fair, those Federal salaries went into the $100,000 range during the Bush Administration. Federal employees used the war as an excuse to get themselves some cost-of-living increases in years when inflation was virtually flat. So, I hardly blame Obama for overpaid bureaucrats.
To deal with Senators – just recind the 17th Amendment and turn the Senate back over to the States where was meant to be in the first place. They’d term-limit themselves if we took away their pensions.
No problemo, Jonn. The ENTIRE Government is out of control. The Republicans loaded up Pork just like the Democrats. Boot them all.
We need to do something about the waste in DOD, too. The insane cost over runs.