Federal Employee Tax Accountability Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. LYNCH. I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to H.R. 1563, the Federal Employee Tax Accountability Act.

I just want to point out that this is indeed about Federal employees, the Federal Employee Tax Accountability Act. It is all about Federal employees.

While I have the greatest respect for the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Chaffetz), I remain concerned that the practical effect of H.R. 1563 will be to significantly diminish the privacy rights of our dedicated Federal workforce.

It is important to note that Internal Revenue Code section 6103 provides that all citizens, for all citizens, Federal tax information--including tax returns, annual wage and tax statements, and tax penalty notices--is strictly confidential and must remain in the trust of only the IRS. It must remain in the trust of only the IRS and the individual taxpayer. That is it. It is not open to general knowledge.

Under this bill, though, tax information--which now includes health information because of the Affordable Care Act--is all going to be shared among every single Federal agency to take so-called adverse personnel actions against one of its employees where the agency finds that an individual has willfully fallen behind on his or her taxes or failed to file a return on time.

Now, we have completely blown this out. If it is not about Federal employees, this is what we are going to do to every American taxpayer. We are basically deputizing the bosses of all these Federal employees to be able to delve into their personal tax information, their personal healthcare information that is now held by the IRS.

We are blowing this completely out so that we are damaging all of these Federal employees' privacy rights, and we also present the possibility that, in the future, this will be done to every American citizen. This is not a good idea.

I think that we have every opportunity to make sure the people pay their taxes. There is a greater compliance rate among Federal employees than there is among the general public.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to H.R. 1563, the Federal Employee Tax Accountability Act of 2015. While I have the greatest respect for the gentleman from Utah, Chairman Chaffetz, I remain concerned that the practical effect of H.R. 1563 will be to significantly diminish the privacy rights of our dedicated Federal workforce.

Importantly, Internal Revenue code section 6103 provides that all federal tax information--including tax returns, annual wage and tax statements, and tax penalty notices--is strictly confidential and must remain in the trust of only the Internal Revenue Service and the individual taxpayer. Current law therefore prohibits any federal agency--other than the I.R.S.--from delving into personal tax information to determine an individual's tax compliance status.

In stark contrast, H.R. 1563 would authorize the head of not only the I.R.S. but every federal agency to take so-called ``adverse personnel actions'' against one of its employees where the agency finds that an individual has wilfully fallen behind on his or her taxes or failed to file a return on time. In order to defend yourself against such an adverse personnel action under H.R. 1563, you must demonstrate that your failure to pay your taxes or file a return on time stemmed from a ``reasonable cause.''

In other words, this bill deputizes agency administrators, managers, and foremen as bonafide tax investigators--authorizing them to examine and determine the tax compliance status of agency employees. In addition, H.R. 1563 essentially requires all federal workers to affirmatively defend their failure to pay taxes or file a return on time by requiring them to provide agency management with specific and satisfactory reasons for their non-compliance. If you're behind on your taxes because you went through a health care crisis and want to keep your federal job, you're going to have to share the details of your medical emergency with your employing agency under this bill. If you're behind on your taxes because you're going through a divorce but still want to keep working at your federal agency, you're going to have to disclose the facts surrounding your divorce to your federal manager.

Now, I understand that this bill may seek to address those rare instances where federal bad actors intentionally try to cheat on their taxes. In practice, however, H.R. 1563 will broadly diminish the tax privacy rights of all federal employees. That's in spite of the 97% tax compliance rate for federal workers reported to our committee by the I.R.S. for 2014. It's also in spite of the existing federal payment levy program that already allows the I.R.S. to levy federal salaries and wages in order to recover delinquent tax debts in a cost-effective manner.

Mr. Speaker, I don't believe that the solution to achieving 100% tax compliance across the federal workforce is to waive the individual privacy rights of dedicated federal workers across the board. I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to oppose this legislation.

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