Sen. Joni Ernst Wants IRS to Audit Its Workers Annually
The bill would force the IRS to audit its workers annually after a July 2024 report revealed current and former IRS workers owe $46 million in back taxes.
Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) dropped her bill “Tax Delinquencies and Overdue Debts are Government Employees’ Responsibility Act” (Tax DODGER Act).
The bill would force the IRS to audit its workers annually after a July 2024 report revealed current and former IRS workers owe $46 million in back taxes “and that about 5% of IRS employees and contractors weren’t fully caught up on their personal tax obligations.”
In November, the IRS told Ernst that 2,044 employees owed $12 million in taxes.
Ridiculous. Cannot stand the IRS.
“It is outrageous that while hardworking Americans fork over their money to Uncle Sam, nearly 150,000 bureaucrats refuse to pay their own taxes,” Ernst said in a statement to Fox News.
It looks like the bill would also apply to all agencies. More from Fox News:
The bill also establishes a new section in the law that could consider a federal job applicant ineligible for hire if they have “seriously delinquent” tax debt, unless already granted a hardship exemption.
“If you don’t pay taxes, you should not work for the federal government,” Ernst said.
“I am ending the ‘rules for thee, but not for me’ mentality in Washington.”
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
“If you don’t pay taxes, you should not work for the federal government,”
Make that state and local government too and you got a deal. Also apply to elected officials!!!
At a minimum their compensation should be garnished if it isn’t already.
Probably want to exempt the military but maybe not above the rank of oh say Captain.
I’m perhaps offering a different view on this. I’m retired military, usg contractor and my spouse is a medical professional running a business.
Taxes are complicated and often a back and forth negotiation with the IRS.. my wife and I have literally received notices on the same day saying we underpaid one tax account and over paid another. Our last iteration went from a nasty gram saying we owed $12k to the IRS saying they owed us $3k 24 hrs later after our accountant talked to them.
A group of 150k people (most with dual income spouses) owing up to $46mil comes out to a potential $307 per person.
Give me a break, a new law isn’t needed here, just the irs enforcing its rules on employees and treating them like every other taxpayer.
Perhaps make the code a little simpler and flatter for everyone.
Your taxes are complicated. Most people’s taxes aren’t. There is a basic concept here and that is government carving out one set of rules for themselves and another for everyone else.
Better yet, the IRS should terminate all its workers and dissolve.
The IRS has its own procedures concerning its employees keeping up with their tax obligations.
https://www.irs.gov/irm/part6/irm_06-751-001
Before this bill is enacted, Congress should review the IRS’ actual procedures for tax compliance and determine if there is any need to change its procedures.
Yes but is there compliance with those procedures.
Can’t think of any better way to “determine” this than audits!
To paraphrase who audits the auditors?
Same people who give them their performance reviews.
We’re doomed.
Good find. In all that, the only reference to IRS employees failing to follow the tax laws is https://www.irs.gov/irm/part6/irm_06-751-001#idm139800988417616 .
The good part is that the recommended penalty is removal (presumably this means firing, or maybe they get moved within the government which would be bad). The bad part is that there’s nothing about finding these cases and highlighting them.
And that’s where the Tax DODGER bill comes in. It’s needed!
Why stop at IRS workers? Audit ALL federal government workers annually. That includes judges and Congress.
Um. I already DO have to pay taxes. Annually. And no way I’ve gotten rich doing it.
You should have gotten yourself elected to congress.
Damn. What was I thinking?
You were thinking? Definitely not congress critter material.
Then you have nothing to fear from a pro-forma audit. Shouldn’t standards be a little tighter for government employees who are paid from tax revenues?
As a guy who’s been audited twice and walked away clean both times (because I WAS clean), don’t talk to me about nothing to fear, The process and the expense is the punishment.
No. Not unless there’s a good reason.
The good reason is that you work for the government and want power over everyone else, but don’t think you should have to give up anything in return.
Just spitballin here but what if we repealed the 16th amendment? I personally think that would solve the problem.
It’s pretty difficult to have IRS agents that are delinquent on the income taxes if there isn’t an income tax and there is no IRS.
While they are at it, why not repeal the 17th amendment that became effective in the same year as the 16th, that provided for the direct election of US senators?
States suffered a huge loss of power when its legislators no longer selected the state’s senators.
100% on screwing up the Founders intent on the senate. They were never meant to be popularly elected.
Keep going!
I always thought the outcome of that amendment was ambiguous. What would the Senate look like today if we didn’t have the 17th? What if the woke NY state legislature appointed the NY senators. I guess you’d already have AOC instead of tired old Schumer.
States allowing illegals to vote. Some states want to do that, for local elections, but not for federal elections. NYC was close to doing it at least. If you put senatorial elections into state government, you will get more radical leftists appointed by state government that was elected in part by illegal aliens in sanctuary cities. Will you get any more hard conservatives?
Well, maybe you could look at this as the first step in making this happen.
Make “practice what you preach” into “practice what you prosecute.” I like it.
Hey, this is a super idea! We should expand it!
Department of Education employees should have to take the SATs annually.
FBI employees should have to get arrested and locked up annually.
NIH employees should be given an “experimentally approved” vaccine annually.
BATF employees should have to have their dogs shot annually.
I think I love this senator, I want to have her babies!
No seriously, I may not agree with all the views of a lot of repub senators but I sure like what they say in many instances. Ernst, Cruz, Kennedy. the senator formerly known as Rubio, Paul, the senator formerly known as Vance, Cotton, T Scott, Crapo (don’t know anything about him but the name has lots of possibilities), Boozman (ditto), Moody (ditto), Hawley, Schmidt, Blackburn. It’s a pity they are all ensconced in an assembly that doesn’t do anything but pontificate and raise money.
Well, I’m pretty sure she doesn’t want to have your babies. I remember just a few weeks ago when LI commentators here were piling on against Senator Ernst because, as a military veteran and former lieutenant colonel, she had doubts about Hegseth because he admitted to being an alcoholic and serial adulterer open to bribery. My how things change.
We are not all uniform in our beliefs you retarded clown. Only a reprobate like you would assume as much. When you assume like that you make an ass out of u and u.
“…because he admitted to being an alcoholic and serial adulterer open to bribery.”
He did no such thing, Bungholio.
Get the hell out of here.
It can’t do much with the filibuster, that makes it “the world’s greatest deliberative body”, they’re so wonderful all they do is talk. Almost. It’s surprisingly good now and from here it’s mostly downside; this is a golden age in the Senate. Compare it to the woke English House of Lords, that it was supposed to resemble.
I think the Senate would be worse if it were appointed by state legislatures, something like English “life peers”.
I disagree about the appointed part. I’ll second your filibuster comment. Someone with more knowledge than me can comment further but part of the original checks and balances had to do with the states having skin in the game so to speak. Once the senate became elected 6 year representatives the state lost all skin. No one spoke for them at the federal level and what has resulted has been a steady flow of power from the states to the federal government which now oversees and controls just about everything. I don’t think that was what the founders envisioned although some obviously wanted a strong central authority.
The other thing with appointed senators it changes the entire dynamic on how they go about their job. Their masters are now the states and not their political contributors. The people they have to satisfy are the state legislatures and not the people of the state. Don’t represent the interests of the state then you’re gone!
The US Senate hasn’t been “the world’s greatest deliberative body” since the 19th century.
Unfortunately, I think she’s a phony. She’s just on the “let’s get em!” bandwagon right now because it suits her. She’ll turn on a dime if circumstances change.
Don’t know. I lost my illusions about elected officials around 1976. I was slow.
Also I live in MA with such illustrious senators as Warren, Markey, Kirk, Kerry, and that lion of the senate Kennedy (D-Dead), Also another Kennedy. That makes me very cynical as well.
There’s a lot of small business single proprietors who pay quarterly. Give the IRS (and other gubmint agency) tax delinquents one annual period to come current, and failing that, then it’s mandated quarterly payments. What’s good for us is more than deserved by them.
Leave a Comment