Architect of the Capitol
House Committee Staffer Charged with Failure to Pay Taxes for 5 Years
Homeland Security panel's chief of staff claimed he was exempt.
In a year when lawmakers have moved legislation to crack down on agency employees who are behind on their taxes, the Justice Department announced on Tuesday it had charged a congressional staffer with five counts of willingly failing to file a tax return.
Isaac Lanier Avant, staff director for the House Homeland Security Committee, has worked on Capitol Hill since 2002, prosecutors said. But for tax years 2009-2013, when the Arlington, Va., resident was earning about $170,000 annually, he filed no personal income tax return, according to the statement released by Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Caroline Ciraolo, head of the Justice Department’s Tax Division, and U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Dana Boente.
“In May 2005, Avant filed a form with his employer that falsely claimed he was exempt from federal income taxes,” prosecutors said. “Avant did not have any federal tax withheld from his paycheck until the Internal Revenue Service mandated that his employer begin withholding in January 2013.“
His case was investigated by the IRS criminal investigation division and Justice’s Tax Division.
If convicted, Avant would face a statutory maximum sentence of one year in prison for each count, as well as a term of supervised release and monetary penalties.
Avant’s boss, Homeland Security Committee ranking member Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., issued a statement Tuesday night on learning of the accusations. “The House of Representatives Office of Payroll and Benefits handles the personal salary payments and tax withholdings of Mr. Avant and other House staffers,” he said. “After learning of these accusations, I spoke to Mr. Avant and he assured me that when the proper forum is provided to him, he will fully explain this situation. Until such time, I trust that everyone will afford Mr. Avant the presumption of innocence to which all Americans are constitutionally entitled.”
The notion that more congressional staffers are tax-delinquent than IRS employees was advanced this year by Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., when the Ways and Means Committee was debating the No Hires for the Delinquent IRS Act (H.R. 1206), which cleared the House in April. It would require the Treasury secretary to certify that no IRS employees are tax-delinquent. The bill’s sponsors rejected an amendment to cover congressional staff as well.