Return to Article: Defense contractors owe billions in unpaid federal taxes
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3689
Gee, I really like this. I do income taxes as a part time job each spring, so I can really relate to this story.
Let's get this straight: "Payroll Taxes" really means 1) the employee's withholding for federal & state income taxes plus the employee's share of Social Security and Medicare taxes, and 2) the employer's matching share of Social Security and medicare taxes.
Companies are supposed to send this money to the IRS quarterly, and there are supposed to be big penalties if they don't.
So when an employee of one of these "deadbeats" files their income tax return and gets a refund, the Treasury is sending the employee money that the deadbeat company never sent in, but rather still owes to the Treasury.
But hey, that company can still pay dividends and issue stock options to its executives, and certainly make political contributions. Isn't this a great country?
As for the individual federal employee, if you owe the IRS a nickel you will never see a refund, and your paycheck is seriously at risk. What's more, the IRS can be the bill collector if you owe any other government agency money - think student loans, for example.
And we wonder why the deficit is growing and Social Security/Medicare is in trouble?
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3558
Hey, if Mr. Bush can collect some of this stolen tax money from rich contractors, maybe the President will finally give us our 2004 raise!
He would be taking stolen tax money from the rich fatcats to give to the poor working man (& woman).
Just like Robin Hood used to do!
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3299
My agency has the highest number of federal employees in arrears for government taxes. Federal employees should be setting the example for the private sector. Thousands of federal employees also owe the government tax money. Lets clean up our house first.
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3271
How are these defense contractor employees, particularly the company executives, getting and keeping the necessary security clearances that enable them to do business with DOD?????? I thought all government employees and DOD contractors were required to get security clearances in order to work for DoD and that the security clearance indicated that the employee's character was determined to be at an acceptable level. When I apply for a security clearance, my financial records are inspected and I am expected to not be in bankruptcy or on the verge of bankruptcy. How is it a company where the company executive's first responsibility is to keep a company profitable and viable, can owe back taxes, and more importantly payroll taxes, which are withheld from employees paychecks? This activity is criminal not just financial irresponsibility, but our government leaders want to continue to give our jobs way to these companies.
I think company executives, congressmen, presidents and vice presidents should be held accountable both financially and criminally for the longterm effects of their decisions while they are in charge!!!!
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3270
Hmmmmm - Do you think Halliburton is on the list?
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3258
Once again we see the value of contractors verses government employees. The American taxpayers are being taken for billions. Are there any congressional representatives with enough backbone to stand up and stop this neverending waste of taxpayer money?
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3253
What else is new? It seems all the little people will pay for this somehow.......After all they are large corps not taxpaying people. There goes the tax rate for hardworking single Americans.
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3251
Gee, the contractors are bilking the government out of dollars. Hmmm, thought the whole point of hiring contractors and putting federal workers out of a job, early outs and RIFing was supposed to SAVE money?
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3248
In my career, I have been an IRS revenue agent and a DOD accountant. One issue that has received little attention is the fact that taxes are automatically withheld on federal government employees while there is generally no tax withholding for payments made to contractors. When computing the potential cost savings of contracting out federal jobs, I would certainly hope that both the cost of uncollected taxes on contractor profits as well as the costs of uncollected trust fund (payroll) taxes are not ignored. I should also make the observation that many small businesses, be they proprietorships, closely held corporations, or partnerships, tend to lard-up their expenses with costs that are purely personal in nature. There is little opportunity for that to happen with regard to federal government employees.
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3244
The list of delinquent taxes should be public information and published regularly. Government agencies should be required to stop payment to these contractors until the delinquent amount is reduced to zero and not be allowed to contract with them again until all tax issues are resolved. To argue privacy is ridiculous because the next thing I know you are going to be all over me for contracting with a tax cheat! If the GAO report is competent there is no privacy issue with distributing the names of the companies involved. The distribution should be from the IRS not GAO however.
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3243
What a surprise. The contractors for military pay have been paying DFAS upper management with bribes. What a bunch of crooks. And DC bureaucrats think that government employees waste money. As a taxpayer, I am angered that my money is being squandered by contractors, but, this is the wave of the future. Politicians and DC bureaucrats must have money invested in these contracting companies. How about a GAO investigation, bring in the FBI too.
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