Tuesday, March 12, 2013

40 Obama White House aides owe the IRS $333,000 in back taxes

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Getty Images (Not my problem)
Getty Images (Not my problem)

President Obama has done a lot of talking the last year about Americans paying their fair share of taxes.
Apparently he means, Do as I say, not as my staff does.
A new report from the Internal Revenue Service has just revealed that 40 of Obama's White House aides owe their employer, the federal government, a total of $333,485 in back taxes.
This is the third straight year that the chief executive of the United States has been unable to get his own staff members to keep up with a citizen's legal income tax obligations. to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars in back taxes owed. All this while Obama has made such rhetorical hay about corporations and the wealthy paying their fair share.
In its previous report the annual IRS audit accounting found that 36 of the Democrat's White House aides owed $833,000 in back taxes. The year before it was 41 Obama staff members owing $830,000. In the past year Obama's teleprompter has been on automatic pilot with oft-repeated demands that Americans and profitable corporate giants pay their fair share of taxes.
Because, as you may have heard him claim, Obama so wants to protect the middle class and we really need to pay down the national debt that he's done so much to grow by 60% to $16.6 trillion in just the 1,511 days he's been spending.
"America succeeds when everyone does their fair share," Obama asserted in more than one speech, "when everyone plays by the same rules." Uh-huh.
Congress required the IRS to make the annual report of all federal employees with an eye toward making up-to-date taxes a condition of government employment. That idea, you'll be shocked to learn, has not yet passed Congress.
And that apparent inability or unwillingness to collect such a huge sum of overdue taxes from its own employees is likely to add to Americans' widespread discontent with the inequities and inefficiencies of the government they finance through paycheck assessments.
The newest IRS report, distributed to news media in document form, shows that almost 312,000 federal employees and retirees are behind in their taxes, an increase of 12% in delinquencies in one year. As of last September, they owed a total of $3.52 billion, up $100 million since the previous audit. Some of these federal workers may face furloughs soon under the sequester cuts.
The Internal Revenue Service is prohibited by law from releasing the names of tax delinquents. But any federal boss could discover their delinquent employees' identity and bring the hammer down -- especially since Mr. Fair Taxes in the Oval Office has made such a big thing about other Americans keeping up.
Pete Souza / White House (Obama addresses his staff)
Pete Souza / White House (Obama addresses his staff)
It might not surprise taxpayers preparing their own returns for April 15 that members and more than 500 employees of Congress who pass the tax laws are behind in their own taxes. The delinquent rate for the House of Representatives is 3.7% totaling $8.8 million due. For the Senate and its employees the rate is 3.3% with $1.9 million owed.
In the Treasury Department, which includes the IRS, 1,289 employees owe $9.3 million. The Department of Education under Arne Duncan has a 4.4% delinquency rate with 201 employees owing $2.4 million. And 328 employees of the Smithsonian Institution owe in excess of $3 million.
Of the cabinet agencies under Obama's direction, employees of the Department of Veteran Affairs owe the most money, $142.9 million due from 13,594 workers. Among independent agencies with more than 1,000 workers, the Government Printing Office had the highest rate of delinquents, 7.6%, or 167 people owing $2.3 million.
More than 2,400 Social Security Administration workers owe in excess of $22 million. More than 1,530 Department of Transportation employees owe $18.15 million. And the U.S. Tax Court has only five employees owing a total $51,516.
Worst is the quasi-independent Postal Service where 22,404 employees owe a whopping $215.2 million. The checks are no doubt in the mail.
The Federal Reserve Bank, which is supposed to oversee the nation's money supply, has some internal money problems apparently. There, 104 employees (5.55%) owe the IRS $1.5 million.
The Justice Department has 2,552 employees owing $20.2 million, Interior 2,066 owing $18.5 million, Health and Human Services 3,454 owing $44.6 million and Defense 5,743 owing $48.9 million.
Homeland Security, which includes the Transportation Security Agency, has 5,844 workers who can't find the $44.1 million they owe the IRS. Although, thank goodness, TSA's airport crews did spot my mini-pocket knife the other day.
Overall, the IRS report says the delinquency rate for the federal government's immense workforce of 9.8 million employees is 3.2%, much better than the overall public's 8.2%. But then the public isn't paid by the public. The IRS federal government delinquent totals do not include those with unpaid tax liabilities but who have negotiated payment plans and are current.

Read More At Investor's Business Daily: http://news.investors.com/politics-andrew-malcolm/031113-647482-obama-aides-behind-in-income-tax-payments.htm#ixzz2NMqAEp6a
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