Capitol Hill Staffers Reportedly Owed $9.3 Million to Uncle Sam Last Year

As members of Congress wrestle over how to reduce the federal deficit, they might want to start with some of their staffers who were on the hook for $9.3 million in back taxes at the end of last year, according to the Washington Post.

That's only a fraction of the $1 billion federal workers nationwide owed but it has increased by 37 percent since 2007, when Democrats took control of both chambers.

Some Republican lawmakers are pushing for the firings of government workers owe the IRS and President Obama has urged a crackdown on delinquent government contractors, the newspaper reported.

The data shows that 638 employees, or about 4 percent, of the 18,000 Hill workers are in IRS debt, a slightly higher percentage than the 3 percent delinquency rate among all returned filed nationwide, the newspaper reported. But the delinquent taxpayers are not identified in the data by name, party affiliation or job title. It's also not clear whether members of Congress are among the culprits.

The average unpaid bill is $12,787 among the Senate's delinquent taxpayers and $15,498 among those working in the House, the newspaper reported.

"It's kind of embarrassing if you help make the laws but you don't obey the laws," Sen. Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, the ranking member on the Senate Finance Committee, which oversees tax issues, told the newspaper.

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