IRS AWARDS PROGRAM COMPLIED WITH FEDERAL TAX REGULATIONS, BUT…

“Some [IRS] employees with tax and conduct issues received awards.”  That statement is from a March 21, 2014, report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.  The report says that more than 11,100 IRS employees with “substantiated Federal tax compliance problems” received bonuses totaling over $1 million in cash and more than 10,000 hours of time off “within a year after the IRS substantiated their tax compliance problem.”  The report also says that federal law requires “the removal of IRS employees who are found to have intentionally committed certain acts of misconduct, including willful failure to pay Federal taxes.” 

I’ll close with this classic understatement from the report: “Thus, while not specifically prohibited, providing awards to employees with conduct issues, especially those who fail to pay Federal taxes, appears to create a conflict with the IRS’s charge of ensuring the integrity of the system of tax administration.”