IRS Amazingly Tolerant of Its Delinquent Employees
Here's a thought experiment.
Would you be comfortable with a police force filled with officers who shoplift?
How about a fire department retaining arsonists?
Or a sanitation department with employees who threw trash into your yard, rather than pick it up?
Why, you'd never tolerate that would you?
And even in the unlikely event such a thing happened, the employees would be fired immediately and the problem would solve itself.
Right?
We hate to intrude on your reassuring fantasy world, but such situations do happen and in fact are happening now. It appears some of our "dedicated public servants" are mostly dedicated to helping themselves.
The federal agency known as the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration reports that almost 150,000 federal employees are delinquent on their taxes.
They owe a mind boggling $1.5 billion in back taxes.
That's bad, but it gets worse.
Getting to specifics, more than 3,300 IRS employees and 2,400 IRS contractors owe at least $29 million in back taxes.
And the report also says many are not on any kind of payment plan.
Jon Hartley, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity was interviewed on "Chicago's Morning Answer" (AM 560/YouTube).
He said the problem was threefold.
"It’s the classic case of rules for thee but not for me," he explained. And the tax scofflaws are "symptomatic of a larger problem of unchecked government waste and lack of accountability."
Anyone who's ever been on the receiving end of an IRS inquiry can tell you it's not a big-hearted agency known for compassion and understanding.
But that's only because you aren't an employee of the IRS.
Everyone involved in dodging their taxes still works for the IRS, including the contractors.
Our only connection with the IRS is sending them money each year before April 15, but we do have some management insights to share.
Any IRS contractor not current on tax liabilities should be fired immediately.
These contractors aren't government employees and their termination should set a positive example for everyone.
As for the IRS employees who aren't paying taxes, they, too should get a termination letter.
This sets another positive example stronger than the current bad one set by their continued employment.
Keeping them on the payroll highlights Hartley's complaint regarding a lack of accountability in the federal government.
Sure, firing federal employees is hard and Republicans should reform human resources rules, but in the meantime if you're cashing a supervisor's check it's time to start earning that supervisor's pay.
Otherwise, we suggest a temporary solution would be deducting the $29 million in back taxes from IRS management's collective paychecks until the employees and the backlog are both gone.
Michael Reagan, the eldest son of President Ronald Reagan, is a Newsmax TV analyst. A syndicated columnist and author, he chairs The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Mr. Reagan is an in-demand speaker with Premiere Speaker's Bureau. Read Michael Reagan's Reports — More Here.
Michael R. Shannon is a commentator, researcher for the League of American Voters, and an award-winning political and advertising consultant with nationwide and international experience. He is author of "Conservative Christian's Guidebook for Living in Secular Times (Now with Added Humor!)" Read Michael Shannon's Reports — More Here.