The IRS demands every American pay what they owe.
But the agency has a dirty secret they tried to hide.
And Joni Ernst exposed the IRS for the one crime that has Americans fuming.
IRS Agents Dodge Taxes While Coming After You
While Americans scramble to file their taxes by April 15, nearly 150,000 federal workers aren't paying their own bills to Uncle Sam.
Fox Business reporter Hillary Vaughn dropped a bombshell about the tax man refusing to pay taxes.
"While most Americans had to write a big fat check to the government today to pay their taxes, over 100,000 federal workers are not paying their taxes," Vaughn reported.
The numbers are staggering.
Federal employees owe roughly $1.5 billion in unpaid taxes as of 2021.
That's money these bureaucrats are pocketing while the IRS sends threatening letters to hardworking families over a few hundred bucks.
But wait — it gets worse.
More than 5,000 of those tax dodgers actually work at the IRS itself.
"Over 5,000 of them work at the IRS and owe $50 million in overdue taxes," Vaughn said.
Think about that for a second.
The people enforcing the tax code against you can't be bothered to follow it themselves.
The IRS has the legal authority to fire employees who refuse to pay their taxes.
So how many of these 5,000 tax cheats got terminated?
Twenty.
That's it. Twenty people out of 5,000.
Joni Ernst Isn't Taking This Garbage Anymore
Senator Joni Ernst watched the IRS operate with two sets of rules — one for them, one for everyone else — and decided enough was enough.
"It is outrageous that while hardworking Americans fork over their money to Uncle Sam, nearly 150,000 bureaucrats refuse to pay their own taxes," Ernst told Fox News.
Ernst chairs the Senate DOGE Caucus working alongside Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency to root out waste and corruption.
And she just introduced legislation that has IRS bureaucrats sweating.
Her "Tax DODGER Act" would force the IRS to audit every single employee annually.
No exceptions. No excuses.
Any agent who doesn't pay their taxes? Fired immediately.
"One bill would require IRS employees to be audited every year and fired if they don't pay their taxes," Vaughn explained.
The arrogance of IRS employees is breathtaking.
These are the same people who will garnish your wages, seize your bank account, and put a lien on your house if you're late on a payment.
But when it comes to their own obligations? Crickets.
Ernst's legislation would establish a zero-tolerance policy — the exact standard the IRS applies to everyone else.
This problem isn't new.
Reports going back to 2001 found federal employees owed $2.5 billion in unpaid taxes.
In 2021, 42,000 federal workers had multiple years of unfiled returns — some going nine years or more without filing.
Federal tax cheats work everywhere across government.
The worst offenders include postal workers, Veterans Affairs employees, and military personnel who somehow forgot their duty includes paying taxes.
The IRS literally has a program called the Federal Employee/Retiree Delinquency Initiative that's been running since 1993.
Thirty years of "addressing" the problem and it only got worse.
IRS Stockpiling Weapons While Dodging Taxes
Ernst uncovered another outrage about how the IRS spends taxpayer money.
The tax collection agency blew $35.2 million on firearms and military equipment since 2006, with $10 million of that spent just since 2020.
"Ernst is also calling out 10 million taxpayer dollars the IRS has spent on guns and ammo, stockpiling 4,500 guns, 5 million rounds of ammo, even 15 machine guns," Vaughn reported.
That's right — while IRS agents dodge their own taxes, they're arming themselves to the teeth with your money.
They've purchased AR-15 style rifles, semi-automatic shotguns, submachine guns, and enough ammunition to make them one of the 50 largest police forces in America.
The agency acquired weapons specifically designed to defeat body armor — the kind of firepower you'd expect from a SWAT team, not accountants.
Ernst introduced the "Why Does the IRS Need Guns Act" to strip the IRS of its arsenal.
The bill would prohibit the agency from buying, storing, or transferring firearms.
All current weapons would be auctioned off with proceeds going toward the national debt.
"The taxman is fully loaded at the expense of the taxpayer," Ernst said.
The IRS defended the weapons by claiming they're for the Criminal Investigation Division.
But here's the thing: it's more common for IRS agents to accidentally fire their weapons than to use them intentionally in the line of duty.
These aren't trained SWAT operators — they're bureaucrats playing soldier with your tax dollars.
The Biden administration spent $80 billion expanding the IRS under the Inflation Reduction Act.
They hired 87,000 new agents who were supposed to go after wealthy tax cheats.
Instead, the IRS continued its historic pattern of targeting low-income taxpayers who can't afford lawyers to fight back.
And now we find out thousands of these agents won't even pay their own taxes.
If you owe the IRS money, they'll track you down, freeze your assets, and make your life miserable until you pay every penny plus interest and penalties.
But when their own employees owe millions? They get to keep collecting paychecks funded by the taxes you're forced to pay.
Ernst's legislation would finally force the IRS to live by the same rules they enforce on everyone else.
Annual audits. Immediate termination for non-payment. Zero tolerance.
The same standard hard-working Americans face every single tax season.
Sources:
- Hillary Vaughn, "IRS Employees Owe $50 Million in Unpaid Taxes," Fox Business, February 11, 2026.
- Joni Ernst Press Release, "On Tax Day, Ernst Cracks Down on the IRS," U.S. Senate, April 15, 2025.
- Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, "The IRS Has Not Adequately Prioritized Federal Civilian Employee Nonfilers," TIGTA Report 2023-30-011, March 2023.
- Adam Andrzejewski, "The Militarization of the U.S. Executive Agencies," Open the Books, June 2023.
- Government Executive, "The Number of Tax Delinquent Feds Is Growing. The IRS Watchdog Wants a Crackdown," March 10, 2023.
