GAO Report Examines IRS Employee Misconduct

by Mike Godfrey, Tax-News.com, Washington

01 October 2004

The Internal Revenue Service fired 126 employees for a range of misconduct offences in the period between July 1998 and April 2004, according to a General Accounting Office Report.

The GAO report revealed that 149 IRS employees who were under investigation during this period resigned or retired, a further 50 cases were closed because the worker separated “for other reasons,” whilst an additional 257 staff were penalized.

It appears that the majority of the disciplinary actions were taken against employees due to non-compliance with federal tax laws. In 115 cases, dismissals were prompted by the employee’s failure to file a tax return, or for understating tax liability.

Meanwhile, five employees were dismissed for threatening to audit taxpayers for personal gain, whilst other offences ranged from falsifying or destroying documents to harassment and assault.

The GAO’s report was the result of an evaluation of Section 1203 of the Internal Revenue Service reform law, intended to protect taxpayers from IRS employee abuses. These rules identify ten acts or omissions for which IRS workers can be fired.

The report observed:

"Since 2000, most types of taxpayer and employee rights allegations have decreased each year. In contrast, Section 1203 allegations related to employee noncompliance with tax filing and reporting laws steadily increased almost each year since 1998."

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