If you Haven't Paid Your Taxes, Should you be Banned from Getting Federal Contracts and Grants? (H.R. 1562)

This bill hopes to incentivize people to pay their taxes by banning corporations and people with outstanding taxes from receiving government contracts and grants.

If passed, the bill would set up an additional step for corporations and people applying for government contracts and grants. They would have to submit a form when they are applying with an agency that says they don't have unpaid taxes — the Treasury Department would then be authorized to verify that claim. Corporations and people with outstanding taxes would not be able to receive grants or offer contracted work. However, if U.S. interests were at stake,  the grant or contract could be awarded.

What’s a government contractor? A lot of things. The government signs contracts with people to do all sorts of stuff — Boeing, who makes airplanes, and Lockheed Martin, who makes pretty much anything that has to do with the military, are numbers two and one, respectively, when it comes to government dollars received. But the people who clean buildings in the Capitol are also contractors—it’s a wide-reaching term.

According to a memo by the Government Accountability Office, contractors used by the government owe a total of $5 billion in unpaid taxes to the government. It’s not much compared to the federal budget — $4 trillion for 2016 — but it’s enough to keep the Forest Service running for almost a year.