A new report from the Inspector General for the Internal Revenue Service has found more than 64,000 tax exempt organizations owe the federal government nearly $875 million in overdue taxes, just a little less than what a similar government analysis found seven years ago.
"A significant amount of the Federal tax debt accumulated by tax-exempt organizations has been outstanding for several years," the IG report concluded, noting the amount of money by some groups is not small change.
"While some organizations owed minor amounts, approximately 1,200 tax-exempt organizations owed more than $100,000 each," the report stated, saying those groups owe nearly $656 million of the unpaid $875 million.
Most of the unpaid amounts aren't for income taxes, which most tax-exempt organizations don't have to pay, but rather for payroll taxes of their employees and certain other taxes.
Investigators found nine organizations that owed payroll taxes spanning "10 or more years that collectively total more than $5.5 million."
This issue isn't a new one - back in 2007, a report from the Government Accountability Office found 55,000 tax-exempt organizations owed almost $1 billion in federal taxes.
Report doesn't say which groups owe what
Unfortunately, this inspector general report redacted information on which groups were reviewed by investigators - they looked at 25 different 501(c) organizations "that appeared to be among the worst examples" of groups with large federal tax debts.
So, instead of a list of names, you get dozens of asterisks, making it impossible to figure out which groups haven't paid Uncle Sam.
The investigation also found some officers of these tax-exempt organizations did not file their own personal tax returns either, as the report charged that 22 officers were "involved in abusive activity."
Making matters even worse is that these 25 tax-exempt groups that were reviewed in this report also received government payments "of more than $148 million" over several years - while at the same time not paying millions in payroll taxes.
"Instead of paying taxes, these organizations accumulated more and more Federal tax debt while continuing to operate with the benefits of an I.R.C. § 501 (c)(3) tax exemption," the report stated.
The report does say that some of the 25 groups reviewed by investigators were being looked at for "political campaign intervention, substantial legislative activities, excessive personal benefits, inappropriate loans, and other fraudulent issues."
You can read the report here.
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