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Washington, D.C.?In the wake of a report showing substantial tax delinquencies among members of Congress and their staffs, the head of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) today urged Congress to act so that those enforcing the nation's tax laws are not treated more harshly than those who write those laws.

NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley said the way to remedy this is for Congress to work with the union to modify a contentious section of the 1998 IRS Restructuring and Reform Act (RRA). Section 1203(b) of RRA mandates the termination of an IRS employee who commits any prohibited act under the section, including failure to file a tax return on or before the due date.

Kelley used the Congressionally?mandated IRS annual report outlining tax compliance among federal employees, first reported in The Washington Post, to emphasize to Senate Finance Committee Chairman William V. Roth (R?DE) and Ranking Member Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D?NY) the unfairness of the mandatory firing provisions for IRS employees when compared to the treatment accorded members of Congress and their staffs who either do not file or pay their taxes on time. The report, first produced in 1992, for the first time included the legislative branch.

In a letter to Sens. Roth and Moynihan, Kelley said "the mandatory termination provisions of RRA are especially harsh when compared to the fact that no similar penalty of any kind applies to members of Congress or congressional staff. It seems patently unfair to hold those who write the tax laws to a lesser standard than those who must enforce them."

Section 1203(b) of RRA covers a wide range of day?to?day activities by front?line tax administration employees, including the failure to file a federal tax return on or before the due date. Such failure on the part of an IRS employee is among 10 reasons leading to mandatory termination from his or her job. The provisions have become known among IRS employees as the "10 deadly sins," and have seriously impacted the way employees are able to approach and perform their jobs.