THE HILL: Tax cheats kept jobs at IRS, audit finds.

The IRS fired just two out of every five employees found to be tax cheats over a decade-long span, according to a new federal audit.

Treasury’s inspector general for tax administration found that 1,580 employees willfully violated tax law from October 2003 to September 2013. The IRS was supposed to fire all of those staffers, under a 1998 law.

But the inspector general found that the IRS commissioner saved 960 of them — 61 percent in all — who were instead given counseling, reprimands or suspensions.

“Given its critical role in federal tax administration, the IRS must ensure that its employees comply with the tax law in order to maintain the public’s confidence,” Russell George, the tax administration inspector general, said in a statement.

“Willful violation of the law by IRS employees should not be taken lightly, and the IRS commissioner should fully document decisions made to retain employees whom management has proposed be terminated,” George added.
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The audit comes at an awkward time for the IRS. John Koskinen, the IRS chief, has been saying for months that more than $1 billion in budget cuts have amounted to “tax cuts for tax cheats,” by hurting the agency’s ability to investigate crimes.

Now that it’s been transformed into a political assault team, the IRS is no longer required to comply with the law.