By Tom Wrobleski
Staten Island Advance, N.Y.
(TNS)
As millions of Americans get ready to file their income tax returns on Tuesday, and to fork over any money that they owe to Uncle Sam, it might shock them to learn that Internal Revenue Service workers owe millions of dollars in back taxes of their own.
The New York Post reported that Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) has proposed legislation aimed at ensuring that IRS workers are up to date with their taxes.
“I am squashing the 1776-style tax revolt at the IRS and forcing bureaucrats to play by the rules they are enforcing on the American people,” Ernst told The Post.
Ernst’s “Audit the IRS Act” requires the agency to probe its workers each year and to fire every agent who doesn’t pay their tax bills.
The law would also restrict the IRS from hiring agents with unpaid tax bills.
Ernst said, “We must conduct a full accounting of America’s tax agency by auditing the auditors. Every single tax-dodging tax collector needs to be shown the door.”
The new law comes in response to a July 2024 watchdog report that found that current and former IRS workers owed $46 million worth of taxes.
The report said that about 5% of IRS employees and contractors weren’t fully caught up on their personal tax obligations.
Four months after the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration’s report on IRS workers who were in arrears on their taxes, the IRS told Ernst that 2,044 agency employees on staff still owed some $12 million in taxes.
Ernst leads the Senate Department of Government Efficiency Caucus, which works in tandem with President Donald Trump’s DOGE cost-cutting initiative.
She last month wrote a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, urging him to crack down on IRS workers who don’t pay their taxes.
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© 2025 Staten Island Advance, N.Y. Visit www.silive.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency LLC.
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Tags: back taxes, Income Taxes, IRS, IRS employees, Joni Ernst, Taxes
