DOD employees could owe IRS thousands of dollars in taxes and interest after PCS moves

[Recursion]

https://www.stripes.com/news/dod-employees-could-owe-irs-thousands-of-dollars-in-taxes-and-interest-after-pcs-moves-1.572442

Just in time for my PCS next month...

Defense Department civilians who made permanent-change-of-station moves within the past two years soon will receive debt notices that also will include unanticipated interest charges and potential state tax penalties because of a 2017 tax law change, military officials in Europe said.

The Defense Finance and Accounting Service office is now calculating amounts owed by affected employees with a plan to mail debt letters in the coming fall, Army officials said. Once the letters are received, employees will have 45 days to pay the entire amounts owed or to work with DFAS to determine payment plans, U.S. Army Europe officials said at a Monday town hall meeting in Wiesbaden.

Many civilians said they were unsure about how much they owed and expressed frustration with an overall lack of clarity about the tax change, which has created widespread confusions at military finance offices.

“The information isn’t being put out there and if it is, people aren’t getting it and don’t know,” said Frances Salas, a DOD civilian with the Red Cross. “It’s like, ‘Here’s a bill, now figure it out.’ People say that we shouldn’t be upset because ‘we get paid enough,’ but not all positions are paid the same.”

[GentryDixon]

1. Tell me again how Trump supports the mikitary.

These PCS moves are in direct support of the mission. This administration is evil to the core.

[Stargazer09]

2. The worst part

There was no provision made for employees already working overseas who are required to return to the states after a certain amount of time.

Nobody in their right mind would have had their household goods shipped overseas had they known that benefit would be taxed when it was time to return stateside. One of my friends works in Japan, and she’s furious.

Stateside employees can opt to stay in place indefinitely, thus avoiding the horrendous tax burden. Most government civilians overseas can’t do that; after 3-5 years, they are forced to move back to the U.S. I imagine their tax burden is going to be absolutely unreasonable.

[GP6971]

3. I worked for a DoD contractor

with a lot of overseas contracts. We were constantly relocating employees using our contractual carriers...the company arranged for the complete move, paid the invoice and then we were done. Often the employee never inquired what the cost of their move was so everyone was pissed when they were notified of this new tax liability. The problem was the company never officially notified them of the change and how it would impact them. Most of the complaints I recently heard was had they known of the new law they wouldn't have shipped as much or not shipped anything at all.

All in all, the whole thing is a disaster for the employees.