Law lets IRS seize bank accounts: NO CRIME REQUIRED

[pnwmom]

Great. So the IRS has been stealing people's money, but they got caught, so now they promise they'll stop. The law needs to be changed.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/26/us/law-lets-irs-seize-accounts-on-suspicion-no-crime-required.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=HpSum&module=first-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

SNIP

Using a law designed to catch drug traffickers, racketeers and terrorists by tracking their cash, the government has gone after run-of-the-mill business owners and wage earners without so much as an allegation that they have committed serious crimes. The government can take the money without ever filing a criminal complaint, and the owners are left to prove they are innocent. Many give up.

“They’re going after people who are really not criminals,” said David Smith, a former federal prosecutor who is now a forfeiture expert and lawyer in Virginia. “They’re middle-class citizens who have never had any trouble with the law.”

On Thursday, in response to questions from The New York Times, the I.R.S. announced that it would curtail the practice, focusing instead on cases where the money is believed to have been acquired illegally or seizure is deemed justified by “exceptional circumstances.”

Richard Weber, the chief of Criminal Investigation at the I.R.S., said in a written statement, “This policy update will ensure that C.I. continues to focus our limited investigative resources on identifying and investigating violations within our jurisdiction that closely align with C.I.’s mission and key priorities.” He added that making deposits under $10,000 to evade reporting requirements, called structuring, is still a crime whether the money is from legal or illegal sources. The new policy will not apply to past seizures.

SNIP

[J_J_]

1. What the

[pnwmom]

2. I wonder how long this has been going on?

The article says they passed a forfeiture reform act in 2000, so it started before then.

[mindwalker_i]

3. So along with police nabbing cash from people they pull over

I wonder how much money they seize? Does this put the U.S. government into the territory of being a racketeering organization?

[pnwmom]

4. And all the agencies involved are incentivized because they get a cut of the money seized. n/t

[WinkyDink]

5. "...making deposits under $10,000 to evade reporting requirements...is...a crime"???????????????????

[Fla_Democrat]

6. I certainly hope not

All of my deposits are under $10K. And here I thought I was safe by making less than $40,000 per month....

[Midwestern Democrat]

9. They're talking about situations where someone is making a deposit over $10,000 and is deliberately

dividing it into smaller deposits of less than $10,000 each to try to avoid the reporting requirements.

[pnwmom]

10. But they've actually been going after innocent people who did nothing wrong -- since 4/5 of the

seizures did not result in criminal charges.

[WinkyDink]

12. In that case, someone needs a remedial composition class.

[benEzra]

15. Too often this has been used against people

who make cash deposits totaling over $10K in a specified time, regardless of whether they were splitting one deposit or whether they were just depositing income as it came in.

Because of forfeiture and the pressure to rack up numbers, there is a lot of incentive to find violations where no violations were intended.

[Liberal_in_LA]

7. wow.

The federal attorney’s office said that parties often voluntarily negotiated to avoid going to court, and that Mr. Potashnik had been engaged in talks until just a few months ago. But Mr. Potashnik said he had spent that time trying, to no avail, to show that the brothers were innocent. They even paid a forensic accounting firm $25,000 to check the books.

“I don’t think they’re really interested in anything,” Mr. Potashnik said of the prosecutors. “They just want the money.”

Bi-County has survived only because longtime vendors have extended credit — one is owed almost $300,000, Mr. Hirsch said. Twice, the government has made settlement offers that would require the brothers to give up an “excessive” portion of the money, according to a new court filing.

[blackspade]

8. So, my guess is that they never went after actual Wall St criminals.....

or corporations... How convenient.

[Le Taz Hot]

11. That's just one of the reasons you NEVER want to owe the I.R.S.

The last couple of years, because of employer screw-ups, we owed the I.R.S. big time. I begged and borrowed but we got the bill paid by April 15 both years. I've seen too many horror stories about people that owed them just a few hundred to a few thousand dollars, people paid them off in installments and years later were still hounded by the I.R.S. for non-payment. It was virtually impossible to convince them that the debt had been paid off.

[Lars39]

14. Took almost a year fir us ti receive a statement

showing zero owed. That statement's like gold and will not ever be tossed.

[AngryAmish]

13. Nobody will even be disciplined for rhis, let alone lose their jobs