Internal Revenue Service officials rewarded more than 100 employees who cheated on their taxes, a government watchdog reported Wednesday.
Nearly 1,600 IRS employees from 2003 to 2014 were caught intentionally violating tax law, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration found. Only a quarter of those employees were fired, while another 108 either received promotions or bonuses.
“Given its critical role in Federal tax administration, the IRS must ensure that its employees comply with the tax law in order to maintain the public’s confidence,” Inspector General J. Russell George said in a statement. “Willful violation of the law by IRS employees should not be taken lightly.”
Nearly one-third of the employees from 2008 to 2013 caught cheating on their taxes received at least one bonus or raise within a year of being disciplined, investigators reported. These rewards include nearly $145,000 in bonuses, almost 900 hours of time-off awards and 30 temporary and permanent promotions.
Of 1,580 cases, IRS officials couldn’t explain why 960 employees received disciplinary action less than a firing, such as a suspension. Another 220 resigned or retired before disciplinary action could be taken, the inspector general found.
“Some employees had significant and sometimes repeated tax noncompliance issues, and a history of other conduct issues,” the report said. “Moreover, management had concluded that the employees were not credible. Nonetheless, the proposed terminations were mitigated by the IRS Commissioner.”
Federal law requires that IRS employees guilty of intentional tax law violations must be terminated, unless mitigated by the IRS commissioner. Since the IRS doesn’t have a policy to document the reason why intentional tax violators aren’t fired, it was unclear why the employees received lesser discipline.
The tax law violations include overstated expenses, fraudulently claiming credits and repeated failure to file federal taxes on time.
The proposal to terminate an employee is preceded by an in-depth review to determine if there was a violation and if it was intentional. Information, such as an employee’s disciplinary record, is reviewed before a termination decision is made.
