Currently in the United States there are about 9.8 million people employed with the federal government. A growing percentage of these employees are delinquent on their taxes. It seems workers including Social Security Administration, Homeland Security Administration, U.S.Postal workers, Departments of the Navy, Army, and Defense, among others owe the government about $3.5 billion in unpaid taxes for the year of 2011. This number is up from previous years.
On March 8th the Federal Employee/Retiree Delinquency Initiative (FERDI) released the information that about 312,000 workers owe the government a total of $3,519,410,517. The U.S Postal service owes the most at $215.2 million of unpaid taxes. Congressional staffers owe a $10.8 million dollar debt; meanwhile there are 40 employees of the Executive Office of the President that owe over $330,000. Active duty military members are also included in the debt and owe about $110 million in unpaid taxes.
It may be noted that the delinquency rate for the public is much higher in comparison to federal employees. The rate for the public is 2.5 times higher than federal employees.
The IRS does place a top priority on going after federal employee tax cases, so these cases will most likely be worked out. Most federal employees file correct tax returns, but they cannot pay the full amount of taxes that they owe. These federal workers can simply apply for a payment plan like other non-federal employees.
Legislative bills have been introduced to try and curb “seriously delinquent tax debts” among federal employees. Right now the only employees who can be fired for having a very late tax bill are IRS workers. However, if the Federal Employee Tax Accountability Act of 2013 passes, certain federal workers could be fired and applicants denied jobs if they have “serious delinquent tax debt.” Of course, if in some cases there is a financial hardship, then a federal worker could remain an employee in a case by case basis.
In the upcoming months BusinessTaxPreparation.com will give you helpful tips to help you prepare for this tax season. If you have tax questions or needs, our tax preparation professionals are happy to discuss your tax questions free of charge. For more information about our services, visit us today at www.businesstaxpreparation.com. With over 16 years of tax preparation experience, we look forward to the 2013 tax season.
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