No Pay If You Owe Back Taxes

Two senators said the Pentagon should garnish payments to contractors who owe back taxes. Sens. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Tom Carper (D-Del.) sent a letter to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta this week that said servicemembers who owe back taxes already can have their wages garnished. They said the same rules should apply to contractors. Their concern was sparked by a recent media report that DoD had awarded a $20 million information operations contract to a vendor whose owners owed $4.5 million in delinquent taxes.