A new report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) found the number of federal employees who are delinquent on their taxes increased by 32% between 2015 and 2021. Still, the IRS has devoted minimal time to finding them.
TIGTA's data analysis from the IRS's Federal Employee/Retiree Delinquency Initiative (FERDI) found that 149,000 federal civilian employees were delinquent for 2021, and 42,000 of them failed to file a return for multiple years.
According to TIGTA, the three federal agencies with the highest number of repeat civilian nonfilers were:
- U.S. Postal Service: 9,056
- Department of Veterans Affairs: 6,586
- Department of the Army: 4,459
While the IRS had only worked on standalone FERDI nonfiler cases when collection representatives were available, TIGTA said that, in 2021, IRS management began to dedicate one day per quarter for employees to work on those cases. However, issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in backlogs and reduced the number of days dedicated to FERDI nonfiler cases.
TIGTA acknowledged the IRS is working on improvements in that area, but additional improvements can be made.
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