Don't Mess With Taxes

Two proposals by Sen. Joni Ernst focus on Internal Revenue Service employees who haven't paid their taxes. A third looks to remove the tax agency's weapons.

Iowa’s junior senator, Republican Sen. Joni Ernst, speaking to her Senate colleagues last month in defense of Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) actions. (Photo: Office of Joni Ernst)
    

While millions of taxpayers were finishing up their tax returns on April 15, Sen. Joni Ernst was introducing legislation she says is necessary to find millions of Internal Revenue Service employees who don’t pay their taxes.

The Iowa Republican’s Audit the IRS Act would require the tax agency to audit its workers’ filings each year and to fire every employee who doesn’t pay their tax bills. The bill also would prevent the IRS from hiring new personnel who have “seriously delinquent” tax debt, unless they already had been granted a hardship exemption.

She justified her bill by pointing to a July 2024 watchdog report that found current and former workers owed $46 million worth of taxes.

Last year’s Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) examination also noted that about 5 percent of IRS employees and contractors weren’t fully caught up on their personal tax obligations.

Long-standing IRS issue: That some IRS employees fail to pay their taxes is not new or news.

Tax agency staff are people, meaning some make mistakes or have other matters that cause them to fail to meet their tax obligations. I’ve been posting about it for years, like this 2011 item noting that tax delinquents include IRS contractors, federal employees.

Members of Congress trying to take political advantage on or near Tax Day of IRS issues is not new or news either. One example is my 10-year-old post Chaffetz goes after tax-delinquent federal employees (again).

That’s not to say the current and past concerns aren’t legitimate. Every taxpayer, regardless of employer, needs to file returns and pay their appropriate, legally due amount of tax. And what better time than April 15 to bring such matters to the public’s attention.

Tax Day 2025 is Ernst’s turn.

“This Tax Day, I am holding these tax collectors accountable by forcing them to live by the rules they are supposed to enforce and auditing the auditors,” said Ernst in a statement announcing her proposal.

Public IRS delinquency list: The Audit the IRS Act is just one of three bills announced on Tax Day by Ernst, who heads the Senate Department of Government Efficiency Caucus that works with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cost-cutting initiative.

A separate IRS audit measure, the Tax Delinquencies and Overdue Debts are Government Employees Responsibility Act, or Tax DODGER Act, would require the IRS to annually publish its federal employee tax delinquency report on current and retired federal employees.

Ernst said that Rep. Randy Feenstra, a fellow Iowa Republican, is working on the House version of the Tax DODGER Act.

This IRS-specific public release of unpaid taxes by IRS personnel apparently would be similar to lists many state tax departments post on their official websites.

In addition to privacy concerns, critics of such public shaming question whether the outing of tax delinquents actually works when it comes to collecting unpaid revenue.

Aiming to take IRS guns: Finally, Ernst announced the Why Does the IRS Need Guns Act. It would prohibit the IRS from using federal funds to purchase, store, or transfer guns or ammunition.

Firearms and ammo currently in IRS possession would be transferred to the General Services Administration (GSA), which would then auction or sell the weapons to licensed dealers and the ammunition to the general public.

Agents with IRS Criminal Investigations (IRS-CI) division, the tax agency’s law enforcement arm, are the primary users of weapons. The bill would remove IRS-CI from Treasury, and instead fold it into the Department of Justice.

Rep. Barry Moore (R-Alabama) is the lead sponsor of the no-IRS-guns bill in the House, who said he found it “shocking” that the previous administration spent more than $10 million on firearms and ammunitions for IRS employees.

“The only thing IRS agents should be armed with are calculators,” said Moore.

You also might find these items of interest:

• IRS Criminal Investigation’s top 10 cases of 2024
• IRS employees & contractors owe $46 million in taxes
• IRS missing $1.4 billion in tax due from unreported gambling winnings

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