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By CURT ANDERSON, AP Tax WriterWASHINGTON (AP) - Internal Revenue Service employees can be summarily fired for nonpayment of taxes, but not the members of Congress and their staffs who helped write that law and owe about $10.5 million in unpaid taxes.
IRS data released Thursday shows that the nonpayment rate as of October 1999 for the House was 8.4 percent, while that in the Senate was 7.5 percent. The 1998 Internal Revenue Service reform law passed by Congress made nonpayment grounds for immediate dismissal of the agency's workers.
The president of the National Treasury Employees Union, Colleen Kelley, said in a letter to congressional leaders Thursday that the immediate firing provisions for IRS employees are "especially harsh when compared to the fact that no similar penalty of any kind applies to members of Congress or congressional staff."
"It seems patently unfair to hold those who write the tax laws to a lesser standard than those who must enforce them," Kelley added.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman William Roth agreed.
"Members of Congress and their staffs have an obligation, like all taxpayers, to pay their taxes in full and on time," said the Delaware Republican, who frequently gets extensions to pay taxes but is not running behind, a spokeswoman added.
The agency did not release the names of those who owe.
The total for most civilian agencies of the executive branch was 6.2 percent, but some Cabinet agencies were much higher. The Education Department, for example, had a 9.2 percent nonpayment rate; Housing and Urban Development's was 8.5 percent and the Labor Department was 7.7 percent.
Other high nonpayment rates: 8.2 percent for the FBI and 7.9 percent for the Coast Guard. The CIA's nonpayment rate was nearly 4 percent, while the Federal Reserve System rate was 8.2 percent. The Defense Department's nonpayment rate came to 7.3 percent.
The Treasury Department, which includes the IRS, had a tax nonpayment rate of 3.8 percent, the lowest of the Cabinet agencies. The White House nonpayment rate was 6.5 percent, an improvement over the 13 percent recorded last year.
The IRS has compiled data on federal employee nonpayment of taxes through its document matching systems since 1993 as a way of spurring greater compliance throughout the government. The numbers include people who are gradually paying off their tax bills through installment agreements with the IRS.
All told, the nonpayment rate for the federal government is about 5.2 percent, compared with 8.1 percent for the U.S. population. The balance owed by these federal employees is estimated at $2.4 billion.
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This is disgraceful,the very ones that write our tax laws are obove them.Are we not all as Americans supposed to be held to the same rule of law?
And they want our respect? First they will have to earn it.
-- capnfun (capnfun1@excite.com), March 31, 2000
Oh, if I were only 50 years younger, a career in government looks so good. No taxes, no morals, no ethics, no decency, free lunches, dinners, trips, free medical, free, free, free, free, free, free.Ah, for the good life. (What a shame I was so dumb and worked for a living.)
-- Richard (Astral-Acres@webtv.net), March 31, 2000.
I once was married to an IRS agent. This IS true. Their tax forms ARE looked at with a fine-toothed comb. On the other hand, they know EVERY loophole by heart, and they KNOW what will flag an audit. [I was pretty amazed some years at what was placed in the "charitable contribution" category.]
-- Anita (notgiving@anymore.thingee), March 31, 2000.
Anita, have your standards improved?
-- KoFE (your@town.USA), March 31, 2000.