571,000 Federal Employees Owe $6,300,000,000 in Back Taxes. The IRS Is Legally Barred From Telling Most Agencies Which Ones.

A Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration report released in May 2026 found that 571,000 current and retired federal employees collectively owed $6,300,000,000 in unpaid federal taxes as of the end of fiscal year 2024 — a figure covering both people still on a federal payroll and those already drawing a federal pension. That combined total is up 32 percent since fiscal year 2021.

Narrow the lens to people currently drawing a federal paycheck and the number is smaller but the trend is sharper: 215,000 current employees specifically owed $2,100,000,000, a 6.9 percent delinquency rate among the active federal workforce, up from 149,000 current employees owing roughly $1,500,000,000at a 4.9 percent rate in FY2021 — the same 149,000-to-215,000 climb behind the “43 percent” population increase below. Those two headline figures — $6,300,000,000 across 571,000 current-plus-retired, and $2,100,000,000across 215,000 current employees only — are not the same number describing the same population, and this page keeps them separate every time either appears.

House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Rep. James Comer (R-KY) opened a formal investigation on June 25, 2026, and gave the IRS until July 9 to brief his staff. That deadline has now passed with no public briefing confirmed — which is where this story picks up.

• $6,300,000,000 — owed by 571,000+ current AND RETIRED federal employees combined, FY2024 · Source: TIGTA Report 2026-3S0023
• $2,100,000,000 — owed specifically by 215,000 CURRENT federal employees only — a 6.9% delinquency rate, up from 4.9% in FY2021 · Source: TIGTA
• 32% — increase in total federal-employee tax debt since FY2021, a rise of $1,500,000,000 · Source: TIGTA
• 122 — federal employees who have not filed a tax return in 8 or more years, referred to IRS Criminal Investigation · Source: TIGTA
• $58,000,000 — recovered after the IRS mailed 427,000 delinquency notices in 2025 — under 1% of the total owed · Source: TIGTA; Government Executive
• 10.1% — delinquency rate at the U.S. Postal Service, the highest of any federal agency, vs. 2.4% at Treasury — the one agency the IRS can legally notify · Source: TIGTA

TIGTA Report 2026-3S0023, “Federal Employee and Retiree Trends Show Increased Tax Noncompliance,” tracks the federal workforce’s own tax compliance from fiscal year 2021 through fiscal year 2024 under the IRS’s long-running Federal Employee/Retiree Delinquency Initiative. The trend line only moves one direction: delinquent population up 43 percent, total debt up 32 percent, in three years. Roughly 50,000 federal employees failed to file a return for two or more years; nearly 14,000 of them earn more than $100,000 annually; and 122 have not filed for eight or more years while continuing to draw a taxpayer-funded salary. TIGTA referred that last group to IRS Criminal Investigation.

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), who chairs the Senate DOGE Caucus, seized on the narrower current-employee figure the day the report circulated. Her framing keeps the two populations distinct in a way worth preserving: 215,000 people currently on a federal payroll, not the larger 571,000 that also includes retirees.

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The agency-by-agency breakdown is where the report turns from a bad number into a structural problem. The U.S. Postal Service has the highest delinquency rate of any federal agency, 10.1 percent, with roughly $570,000,000 owed. The Small Business Administration runs 8.7 percent. The Department of Veterans Affairs runs 7.3 percent, about $380,000,000 owed. The Treasury Department — the IRS’s own parent agency — runs the lowest rate of any agency in the report, 2.4 percent. That is not a coincidence and it is not Treasury employees being unusually honest. It is the direct effect of 26 U.S.C. § 6103, the statute governing taxpayer-data confidentiality. TIGTA’s own language is blunt: the IRS “generally cannot disclose an employee’s tax delinquency to that employee’s agency” — unless the employee happens to work for Treasury itself, the one agency the statute lets the IRS talk to.

Every other Cabinet department and independent agency is flying blind on its own workforce. A postal supervisor, a VA claims processor, or an SBA loan officer can run years of tax delinquency without their employer ever being told — because the law that is supposed to protect taxpayer privacy also protects delinquent federal employees from their own bosses finding out.

The IRS is not entirely without tools. In May 2025 it created a new notice, Letter LT36, specifically to warn federal employees and retirees about unresolved tax debt. Between June and July 2025, the agency mailed roughly 427,000 of these notices. The Taxpayer Advocate Service, the IRS’s internal watchdog for taxpayer rights, publicized the rollout at the time.

The results were thin. Somewhere between 59,000 and 65,000 recipients made any payment at all. Just 4,700 paid their balance in full. Total recovered: $58,000,000 — under 1 percent of the $6,300,000,000 the report says is owed. Lia Colbert, the IRS’s Small Business/Self-Employed Division Commissioner, defended the campaign anyway, describing the response as “meaningful engagement” from the federal workforce. A 1-percent recovery rate on a mass mailing is one way to read the numbers; whether it counts as meaningful is the question Chairman Comer’s investigation is now asking directly.

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Chairman Comer’s June 25, 2026 letter to IRS Chief Executive Officer Frank Bisignano demanded enforcement data going back to March 6, 2023, including how many delinquent federal employees have actually been referred to the IRS’s existing Federal Payment Levy Program — the wage-garnishment tool that already exists in statute and, on this record, appears rarely used against the government’s own workforce. Comer did not soften the framing when he discussed the findings publicly:

“I don't think anyone in America knew about it, including myself.”

Rep. James Comer (R-KY), House Oversight Chairman

Comer went further, comparing federal tax scofflaws to a category of debtor Congress already forces into automatic wage garnishment:

“Your wages get garnished if you're a deadbeat dad ... These are deadbeat taxpayers, and to make it worse, they work for the federal government.”

Rep. James Comer (R-KY)

Comer’s letter was not the opening move. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) first pressed the IRS on tax-delinquent federal employees back in April 2025. Sen. Ernst introduced the Tax DODGER Act on Tax Day 2025, and Rep. Randy Feenstra (R-IA) sponsors the House companion bill; both would strip federal pay and benefits from employees who owe back taxes. Ernst has also pushed a separate Audit the IRS Act. None of these bills has become law.

TIGTA has recommended for years that Congress or the IRS find a lawful way to let federal agencies see their own employees’ delinquency status — the single change that would let the Postal Service, the VA, and the SBA do what Treasury can already do to its own workforce. That recommendation remains open. No bill closing the § 6103 gap has passed. Comer’s July 9 deadline has come and gone with no confirmed public briefing, and the $58,000,000 recovered against $6,300,000,000 owed is still the only enforcement result on the board.

What to watch: whether Comer's committee gets the briefing it demanded, whether the Tax DODGER Act or its House companion gets a floor vote, and whether the next TIGTA update shows the 32 percent trend line bending down instead of up. Until one of those things happens, the federal government's own tax bill — owed by its own employees — keeps compounding on a debt it cannot fully see.

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Last updated July 13, 2026