LONDON The Afghan government has levied at least $93 million in taxes on U.S. contractors that should have been exempt under agreements reached between the two governments, according to a new report from a congressionally mandated special inspector general’s office.

In total, since the office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) began auditing the tax payments of 43 different contractors working for U.S. government agencies in 2008, those contractors have paid $921 million to the Afghan Ministry of Finance (MOF), according to the report.

While SIGAR said $93 million of that was assessed in violation of the U.S.-Afghan tax agreements, it adds that, “based on our audit work, we believe that much of the remaining taxes are also illegitimate.”

The audit “identified instances in which the MOF assessed tax liabilities on contractors even though the contractors held MOF-issued tax exemption certificates,” according to the 37-page report (PDF) published Tuesday.

While SIGAR’s report is highly critical of the MOF for 슬롯 머신 이기는 방법 allegedly levying the improper taxes, it also sharply accuses at least two U.S. government agencies of reimbursing contractors – at U.S. taxpayer expense – for tax charges they should never have paid in the first place.