The Week magazine recently published a very interesting article titled, "Tax dodgers on the federal payroll: By the numbers."
It notes that nearly 100,000 government employees owe more than $1,000,000,000 in unpaid taxes for last year alone! That's one-billion-dollars, people!
Does this strike anyone besides me as a bit peculiar?
You might ask, are any of them still receiving their full paychecks?
Do you wonder as I do, who has been conveniently ignoring this big problem? The IRS maybe?
As it turns out these numbers include:
$265 million owed by civilian employees of the Pentagon, Air Force, Army and Navy.
$111 million owed by nearly 30,000 active duty military personnel.
$10.6 million owed by 684 congressional staffers.
$9.3 million owed by nearly 12,000 treasury department
employees.
And this is but a small portion of the more than $114 billion owed our government in unpaid taxes, penalties and interest by ALL Americans!
Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, is pushing a bill that would allow tax dodgers to be fired for not paying their taxes.
He notes, "That's totally unacceptable and disrespectful."
He also added, "If you're on the federal payroll, the very least you can do is pay your taxes."
I couldn't agree more and hope those of you who also find this astonishing and beyond belief will write your Congressmen or Congresswomen and show your support for this bill!
Rod Livdahl
Mesa
Dale Whiting posted at 3:37 pm on Wed, Feb 1, 2012.
Back in the 70's when I was on active duty, my state waived any taxes on my federal wages. But they also refused to send me a ballot so I could not vote either. If I had this same choice today, I probably would choose to keep my money and allow my old home state to keep their ballots. So what's different today?
IceCat posted at 4:33 pm on Wed, Feb 1, 2012.
$111 million owed by nearly 30,000 active duty military personnel
Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, is pushing a bill that would allow tax dodgers to be fired for not paying their taxes
Okay Congressman how do you fire a active duty military member on the front lines?
And Congressman how many people on your staff owe taxes?
Accuracy posted at 10:07 am on Thu, Feb 2, 2012.
With all federal retirees, military personnel included . . . federal, Congressional, and postal employees owed $3.4 billion in unpaid taxes at the end of fiscal 2010, according to a recent Internal Revenue Service (IRS) audit of federal workers.
Yes, this is a small part of the $114.2 billion unpaid 2010 taxes, interest, and penalties for all Americans, because not just federal employees are tax dodgers. Federal workers are subject to the same treatment as other taxpayers who don’t pay some or all of their taxes.
But through the IRS generous tax credits/returns, those with an income of $10,000 to $20,000 can end up with a refund of $4,000 to $6,000. That’s getting back totally more than what they paid in payroll taxes.