We can safely presume IRS employees to be hardened professionals who tend to complete their federal tax forms diligently without fiddling with the numbers. Besides, they know the charges they will face if they try to scam their own government.
Unfortunately, the truth is far from this as the IRS disciplined almost 500 employees for either not filing their federal tax returns, filing late, or understating their federal tax liability. While this may sound like a heartening news story where the wrongdoers were brought to justice, in reality only five of the 500 offenders were fired. This information was disclosed by the Committee for Efficient Government (CFEG) on April 7, 2016 after a request was filed through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
This act of shedding light on government employees and their misdemanors was kicked off after a scathing report was disclosed by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) in March 2014.
The report revealed not only how these IRS employees were not being fired for not paying their taxes, but that they also received performance bonuses despite of their actions. To make matters worse for us, TIGTA also disclosed how IRS employees received “more than $1 million in cash awards [and] more than 10,000 hours in time-off awards” between October 1, 2010, and December 31, 2012.
As if this wasn’t enough, numbers suggest that thousands of employees have deliberately evaded taxes over a 10 year period; 18,300 to be precise. Out of these 18,300 cases, only 1,580 were caught and few were fired. Some out of these 1,580 offenders even received promotions and discretionary bonuses.
While the IRS provided data with regards to the disciplined employees, it conveniently skipped out on providing:
“the dollar amount owed to the Treasury by IRS employees, the amount of money the IRS has collected from delinquent employees, or the number of employees who have received promotions or bonuses in the last six years while delinquent with their taxes.”
That’s our hard-earned tax money being put to good use, America.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_j9he_phhY
Featured image from YouTube video.
