In a report made available to The Epoch Times, TIGTA  said auditors found 3,414, or 4 percent, of the 85,359 employees at the IRS have unpaid taxes. Of those with payment plans, $9 million remains unpaid, while $12 million is owed by employees without a payment plan.

Among IRS contractors, which include many former tax agency employees, 2,573 of 25,732 (10 percent) contractors have unpaid taxes. Of those without a payment plan, $17 million is owed and those with a payment plan have $8 million outstanding.

The TIGTA also reported that 512 former IRS employees were rehired, either as employees or contractors, despite having "tax compliance issues or conduct and performance problems, including criminal misconduct, sexual misconduct, inability to perform duties, fighting and assault, and unauthorized access to tax return information, have been rehired by the agency and its contractors," according to Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), who requested the watchdog's report.

Law Requires Tax Cheats Be Fired
Federal law requires that federal workers found to have unpaid taxes must be removed unless the IRS Commissioner specifically allows them to remain on the government payroll. The present IRS chief, Danny Werfel, has exercised that discretion to retain more than 1,000 such workers since 2021.

"Between October 1, 2021, and April 1, 2023, the IRS closed 1,175 cases with disciplinary actions, for 1,068 current employees, with confirmed tax noncompliance issues. During that same time period, 70 employees were identified with substantiated willful … violations and 20 were removed as a result," the TIGTA report explained.