Holy COW!! Federal Workers and Retirees Owe Almost $3.5 BILLION To The IRS

Here's a great idea that may help both the unemployment problem, the deficit and, as the President would make sure at least one group pays it's fair share of taxes. And I am sure it would be a bi-partisan policy. The idea is simple force the 279,381 delinquent tax payers who work for the federal govt., or are on a govt. pension pay the $3,420,168,684 in taxes they owe the IRS.  For the ones who are working, give them a month to negotiate a payout plan with the IRS, if they don't first put a lien on everything they own...then fire them...it will free up the jobs for unemployed tax payers.  As for the retirees--freeze their assets and dock their pensions.

This is disgusting! I first read this story on Andrew Malcolm's column at IBD , and felt compelled to download the spread sheet from the IRS and look at the pitiful numbers myself (the full report is embedded at the end of this post).

Fairness? Under the President's own roof in the executive branch there is over $620 Million of "not paying their fair share" not counting  the people who have already worked out payment agreements with the IRS. The Military branches are the biggest offenders---these are the civilians,  active duty military will be covered at the end of the post.

Maybe we can get Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to take a break from taking away our health care freedom and urge her staff to pay their taxes as they are the most delinquent department non military department with almost $41 million owed to the IRS.

Also interesting is the Department of Justice, in charge of enforcing the law, is involved in tax lawlessness. Maybe its not their fault,  maybe the folks at the DOJ spent too much money helping out the ATF by buying guns for the Mexican Cartels and now they have no money to pay their taxes.

Executive Departments Balance Owed Department of Veterans Affairs  $        151,082,033 Department of the Army  $        105,478,429 Department of the Navy  $          70,882,416 Department of the Air Force  $          49,522,513 Department of Health and Human Services  $          40,697,493 Department of Defense  $          39,490,022 Department of Homeland Security  $          36,984,922 Department of Commerce  $          27,433,827 Department of Justice  $          17,662,076 Department of Agriculture  $          17,185,736 Department of Transportation  $          16,139,290 Department of the Interior  $          13,301,234 Department of the Treasury  $            9,303,278 Department of Labor  $            7,141,207 Department of Housing and Urban Development  $            5,021,404 Department of Energy  $            4,932,109 Department of Education  $            4,286,496 Department of State  $            3,958,293 Executive Office of the President  $               833,970 Total Executive Branch  $      621,336,748
Its not just the Executive Branch, take a look at Congress and their aides.
Balance Owed U.S. Senate  $            2,134,501 U.S. House of Representatives  $            8,535,974 Total Congress  $        10,670,475 Take a look at the independent agencies, the postal service is losing money hand over foot but postal workers owe almost $270 million dollars in taxes (please don't shoot Mr. Postman Sir). There is something ironic about the Administrative Office of the Courts breaking the law, who do they think they are anyway,  the Department of Justice? The government accountability office isn't. And the total of all the independent offices is over $400 million dollars. Independent Agencies and Other Offices Balance Owed U.S. Postal Service  $        269,641,265 Social Security Administration  $          20,144,559 Environmental Protection Agency  $          19,473,477 Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts  $          13,066,643 Tennessee Valley Authority  $            4,622,722 National Aeronautics and Space Administration  $            4,405,790 General Services Administration  $            4,286,658 Small Business Administration  $            3,930,497 Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation  $            3,155,313 Smithsonian Institution  $            2,434,589 Government Printing Office  $            2,122,322 Office of Personnel Management  $            1,917,149 U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission  $            1,579,559 Federal Reserve System - Board of Governors  $            1,265,152 U.S. Agency for International Development  $            1,177,829 Securities and Exchange Commission  $            1,146,843 Federal Communications Commission  $            1,084,544 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission  $               801,163 Government Accountability Office  $               788,873 Broadcasting Board of Governors  $               728,848 Presidio Trust  $               725,633 Financial Crisis Inquiry Board  $               634,138 National Labor Relations Board  $               524,931 National Science Foundation  $               512,535 Railroad Retirement Board  $               425,644 Court Services and Offender Supervision  Agency  $               413,427 National Archives and Records Administration  $               328,768 Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation  $               291,473 Federal Trade Commission  $               262,677 Federal Housing Finance Agency  $               249,316 Commodity Futures Trading Commission  $               243,644 Int'l Boundary and Water Comm: U.S. and Mexico  $               216,749 Export-Import Bank of the United States  $               168,907 Merit Systems Protection Board  $               140,716 Federal Election Commission  $                97,354 National Endowment for the Humanities  $                96,152 Peace Corps  $                95,767 U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum  $                93,341 Consumer Product Safety Commission  $                89,441 Armed Forces Retirement Home  $                85,476 National Transportation Safety Board  $                78,580 Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board  $                66,707 National Credit Union Administration  $                66,144 U.S. Tax Court  $                62,508 Corporation for National and Community Service  $                59,911 Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service  $                38,849 U.S. International Trade Commission  $                37,534 United States Access Board (Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board)  $                36,100 Federal Maritime Commission  $                32,126 National Endowment for the Arts  $                31,411 Millennium Challenge Corporation  $                28,484 U.S. Office of Government Ethics  $                22,160 Advisory Council on Historic Preservation  $                18,218 Institute of Museum and Library Services  $                17,201 Farm Credit Administration  $                10,917 Overseas Private Investment Corporation  $                  7,535 Medicare Payment Advisory Commission  $                  6,181 Federal Labor Relations Authority  $                  1,439 Selective Service System  $                     777 Inter-American Foundation  $                        9 Other  $          37,960,267 Total Independent Agencies  $      402,052,942 The IRS reports that Active Military personnel owes about $340 million and those collecting a public pension owe over two billion. Military Balance Owed Active Duty Military   $ 111,027,905 Military Reserves/Guards   $ 228,836,638 Total Military   $ 339,864,543 Retirees Balance Owed Civilian  $  469,896,027 Military  $ 1,576,023,976 Total Retired  $ 2,045,920,003

All together people who work for the federal government and those who receive their pensions from the tax payers are not paying their fare share of taxes, and when you add the money Warren Buffett's company owes the IRS, we are talking about over four and a half billion dollars owed to the tax-payers.

Once again we are learning of a big gap between the "haves" and "have nots" in this country. The "haves" are the members of the federal bureaucracy and the rest of us are the "have nots."

Call me crazy (and many people do) but it seems to me before the president even considers raising taxes on people in the private sector he should clean up the federal government and make sure everyone pays their fair share of taxes.

Irs-federal Workers Tax Scofflaws