Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says he’s taking immediate action after a federal report released Monday found many thousands of federal workers combined owe more than three-billion dollars in income taxes from 2008. Grassley, a Republican, says he’s stunned by the report, finds it “offensive,” and wants to go a step further.
Grassley says, “I’m asking the commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service about unpaid taxes by federal contractors who receive hundreds of billions of dollars every year in the payment of Medicaid and Medicare.” Grassley says it’s upsetting to hear so many federal workers and contractors would “shirk their obligations” by not paying their federal taxes.
“Reports from the Government Accountability Office indicated that these contractors owe more than one-billion dollars in unpaid taxes each year, including payroll taxes used to fund Medicare and Medicaid,” Grassley says. “These reports raise a tax fairness issue because it’s not right.” The G-A-O report found more than 21,000 physicians, health professionals and suppliers paid under Medicare Part B had tax debts totaling over one-billion dollars.
Grassley says he’s disgusted to hear how much money is owed to the federal government by people who work directly or indirectly -for- the federal government. “It’s especially offensive that these tax delinquencies come from federal employees and contractors,” Grassley says. “I’ve asked the IRS for an accounting of what the agency is doing to collect these taxes and to coordinate enforcement efforts with the federal agencies that run Medicare and Medicaid.”
In this era of advanced computer technology, he says it really should be quite easy to cross-check who’s paying and who’s not, adding, “We should be on top of this.”