# Plain Language Summary: Audit the IRS Act

This bill creates a rule that prevents people with serious unpaid tax debts from working at the IRS. Specifically, if someone owes taxes to the federal government and the IRS has filed a "notice of lien" (a legal claim against their property), they cannot be hired by or continue working for the IRS. The bill applies to all IRS employees, including regular staff and contract workers.

There are a few exceptions built into the rule. If someone with a tax debt is actively paying it off through an official payment plan with the IRS, they're still eligible to work there. Similarly, if someone is disputing their tax debt through the IRS's formal appeal process, they won't be disqualified while that dispute is being resolved. The idea behind these exceptions is to allow people who are genuinely trying to resolve their tax problems to still work for the agency.

To make this work, the bill requires the IRS Commissioner to check every current employee within six months of the law passing, and then annually after that, to verify nobody has a serious unpaid tax debt. For new job applicants, the IRS must verify they don't have this problem before hiring them. The bill essentially says the IRS should practice what it preaches—if you work for the tax agency, you need to be current on your own taxes. The Office of Personnel Management (the federal agency that handles government employment rules) will create the specific procedures for how to carry out these checks.

Audit the IRS Act

Feenstra, Randy

Audit the IRS ActThis bill prohibits an individual who has a seriously delinquent tax debt from being&nbsp;appointed, or continue serving, as an officer or employee of the Internal Revenue Service.&nbsp;