Federal Workers Owe $1B in Back Taxes

Some 98,000 federal workers owed $1.03 billion in unpaid taxes at the end of the 2010 fiscal year. While that's fewer employees than in 2009, the amount of cash owed climbed by $32 million, the Washington Post reports. Defense Department workers owed the most, with more than 30,000 employees—including 4,600 civilian employees—in the red by $265 million, while 2% of active duty troops and 2% of reservists owed $339 million.

Some 4% of congressional staffers—684 workers—owed $10.6 million, while 2% of workers at the 1,800-employee Executive Office of the President owed $834,000. About 4% of postal service employees owed $269.6 million. Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz, who is pushing legislation to require federal agencies to fire workers who deliberately dodge taxes, called the news "totally unacceptable and disrespectful to hardworking American taxpayers." Overall, US taxpayers owed a total of $114.2 billion including interest and penalties. (More federal employees stories.)