If you're going to work for the government, you'd better be paying your taxes.
So says a bill written by Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, that will be voted on Wednesday evening in the House of Representatives.
Chaffetz's bill will terminate the employment of current federal employees who have "seriously delinquent tax debt" and prohibit future hiring of such individuals for federal jobs.
“Federal employees, contractors, and grantees have an obvious obligation to pay their taxes,” said Chaffetz in a press release. “Because they draw their compensation and funds from the American taxpayers, they owe it to the taxpayers themselves to be compliant. Those that do not, should be fired or lose funding.”
To Chaffetz, tax delinquency amounts to double-dipping. First, federal employees collect their paychecks from taxpayers, and then they don't pay their share in taxes. According to the IRS, there are about 100,000 federal employees who owed a combined $1 billion in unpaid federal income taxes in 2009.
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