House Oversight Chairman James Comer said his committee is investigating unpaid tax debt among current and former federal employees after findings showed delinquency has risen sharply since 2021.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
More than 571,000 federal employees and retirees owe the U.S. Treasury more than $6.3 billion in unpaid income taxes, according to a House Oversight and Accountability Committee investigation reported by Just the News.
The findings show tax debt among federal workers has increased 32% since 2021, while the number of current and former government employees who are not paying their taxes has risen 43% over three years, according to Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
The committee announced Wednesday that it had opened an investigation into the billions in unpaid taxes owed by federal employees.
“I don’t think anyone in America knew about it, including myself,” Comer told the Just the News, No Noise TV show. “The people who have made their living and their retirement off of our hard-earned tax dollars aren’t paying their taxes.”
Comer said the findings should lead to stronger enforcement by the IRS against federal workers and retirees who have failed to file or pay what they owe. He pointed to a Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration report that found roughly 50,000 federal employees had not filed tax returns for two or more years.
That group includes 14,000 federal workers earning more than $100,000 a year, along with about 122 employees who had not filed taxes for eight or more years while continuing to receive taxpayer-funded salaries.
The IRS sent delinquency notices to about 427,000 current and retired federal employees in June and July 2025, according to the report. Only 4,700 paid their outstanding tax liabilities in full.
The unpaid tax debt comes as Vice President J.D. Vance leads a federal anti-fraud effort targeting waste, fraud and abuse in government spending. President Donald Trump appointed Vance as a “fraud czar” in early April, placing him at the head of a federal task force focused on uncovering fraud nationwide.
The Vance-led effort has identified fraud involving hospices and health agencies in Los Angeles, where officials said about $600 million in public funds fraud was found and shut down. Vance also referred congressional evidence involving Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison to the Justice Department for investigation over allegations that they failed to act against mass welfare fraud. Other operations also have been uncovered in Maine.
“We will not stop until every hard-earned taxpayer dollar goes toward the honest Americans who deserve them,” a Vance spokesperson said in April.
Comer said unpaid tax debt among federal workers adds to the country’s broader fiscal problems.
“We have a national debt that continues to skyrocket,” Comer said.
The Kentucky Republican said federal employees who do not pay taxes should face consequences because their salaries and retirement benefits are funded by taxpayers. He said possible responses include garnishing wages and, in some cases, terminating employment.
Removing federal employees can be difficult because civil service protections make termination more complicated than in many private-sector jobs. Comer said wage garnishment could allow the government to withhold part of delinquent workers’ paychecks to recover unpaid taxes.
“Your wages get garnished if you’re a deadbeat dad,” Comer said, citing child support payment requirements. “These are deadbeat taxpayers, and to make it worse, they work for the federal government.”
Comer also said the names and records of those who have failed to file or pay should be made public.
“Their friends and neighbors and relatives and people they attend church with, they need to know that this federal employee is not even bothering to file a tax return,” he said.
The House Oversight investigation places the issue within a broader debate over accountability inside the federal workforce. Comer said the committee will continue examining how hundreds of thousands of current and former federal employees accumulated billions of dollars in unpaid tax debt while receiving government salaries or retirement benefits.
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