Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Uncle Sam has a hard time getting his own employees to pay their taxes. More than $3 billion is owed by U.S. government workers from 2008, an amount only slightly smaller than that of the previous year ($3.6 billion).
More than 276,000 employees owed the IRS for last year, including personnel from just about every department and office. Among big federal operations, the U.S. Postal Service is one of the worst when it comes to tax scofflaws, with 28,913 workers owing $297,933,756. In 2007, 54,000 postal employees owed more than $407 million.
Smaller government agencies also have high delinquency rates, such as the Government Printing Office (6.29%).
One cabinet department that has little to worry about is the Treasury Department, which has a delinquency rate of less than 1%. It helps that one of its primary offices is the IRS, where not paying taxes is grounds for termination.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Feds Owe Uncle Sam $3B in Unpaid Taxes (by Mark Segraves, WTOP)
Federal Employees Owe $3 Billion in 2008 Taxes (IRS, Washington Post)
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