Under Bushies, Tax Delinquents Are Awarded Lucrative Contracts and Rewarded Rather Than Paying Up

From USA Today, with a nod to TPM Muckraker for pointing to the link:

The Government Accountability Office found more than 3,800 of those GSA contractors had tax debts that totaled about $1.4 billion. That figure may underestimate the amount owed, investigators said, because they did not examine contractors that failed to file tax returns or underreported their income.

The examination of GSA contracts is the third in the panel's series of hearings on contractors that owe federal taxes. The panel's staff said the hearings have identified $7.7 billion in taxes owed by government contractors.

A federal payment levy program that recoups unpaid taxes from delinquent contractors collected about $42 million last year. One contractor has been convicted for tax violations.

"One of the main problems here is that contractors are being allowed into the system in the first place and are being awarded contracts even though they owe taxes," said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich.

[snippy snip]

In one case, a communications equipment contractor got $100,000 in federal payments while owing nearly $900,000 in unpaid taxes. The owner had been convicted of money laundering.

In another, a security services company got $100,000 while owing more than $3 million, mostly in payroll taxes. The owner had several commercial properties and a yacht.