His Internal Revenue Service cronies became suspicious when Joseph Green and his wife, filing separate returns, claimed identical deductions.

 

Revenue Officer Green had been rated excellent in collecting taxes, but inferior in paying taxes.

When fellow agents in the Tallahassee , Fla. , office audited the returns, Green turned red. He said he had been in a hurry and admitted taking duplicate deductions was stupid. The IRS response, this is more than stupid: Stupidity might excuse one year's return -- but not four.

 

Green tried another excuse: He argued tax laws discriminate against married couples. This, of course, wasn't persuasive. He finally gave the real reason: He thought he could get away with it.

 

The IRS is getting tough on its employees like Green. A recent investigation revealed that about 12 employees had filed questionable returns. The agency fired several of these employees. It has now scheduled further reviews of returns of 800 more.

 

Thirty-year Collection Officer William C. Beretta was also challenged by his fellow employees. Beretta owned restaurants in Salinas and Atascadero , Calif. He had instructed managers to take as much money out of the registers as the restaurant could do without. For one restaurant, this amounted to between $50 and $200 a day. They charged this to miscellaneous expense. For the other restaurant, this amounted to between $100 and $200 a day. The manager made false cash register overrings to account for the money. Beretta and his partners shared the skimmed money.

 

In court, Beretta admitted he hadn't reported $103,000 on his returns. But, he said, this was in return for money he had lent the restaurants.

 

The court said the facts don't indicate loans: His notes didn't have a maturity date. His source of “repayments” was highly unusual. And he never received interest.

 

Beretta pleaded guilty to a Federal criminal conflict of interest charge, and the court said he owed $47,058 in taxes plus fraud penalties and interest.