Law Lets I.R.S. Seize Accounts on Suspicion, No Crime Required

MSN ^ | 10/25/14 | SHAILA DEWAN

[Libloather]

ARNOLDS PARK, Iowa — For almost 40 years, Carole Hinders has dished out Mexican specialties at her modest cash-only restaurant. For just as long, she deposited the earnings at a small bank branch a block away — until last year, when two tax agents knocked on her door and informed her that they had seized her funds, almost $33,000.

The Internal Revenue Service agents did not accuse Ms. Hinders of money laundering or cheating on her taxes — in fact, she has not been charged with any crime. Instead, the money was seized solely because she had deposited less than $10,000 at a time, which they viewed as an attempt to avoid triggering a required government report.

“How can this happen?” Ms. Hinders said in a recent interview. “Who takes your money before they prove that you’ve done anything wrong with it?”

The federal government does.

[griswold3]

Venezuela does this all the time.

[Drew68]

This is ESPECIALLY for the morons who wanted the guy who promised the "fundamental transformation of America".

Bull. This crap has been going on for the past 25 years. It's only now getting media attention.

[Dick Bachert]

Thanks for the clarification.

[zeugma]

You can thank anyone who supports the “war on drugs” for this and many, many other governmental tyrranies.

[trebb]

The law aids and abets the criminals - the only way this will stop is for citizens to impose penalties on the corrupt. The problem with it is that once citizens do so, the government will declare a no-holds-barred shooting war against those it claims to serve.

[GOPJ]

Thanks for the ping.

[kiryandil]

As a fed prosecutor said one time in my hearing, ‘We like the technical violations. They are easy to prove.’

I'm pretty sure one of the Founding Fathers would have back-handed the teeth out of that prosecutor's smirking face, then gut-punched him till he puked.

He would have saved the spittle for last...

[kiryandil]

I seriously dislike the idea of government intrusion into my life. So if I had $10,000.01 in cash to deposit, I’d be inclined to make 2 deposits.

I think people are not getting it.

The "$10,000" threshold (or $5000, or whatever) is a myth promoted by our Owners in the government.

It's strictly for the gullible or low information people.

The actual amount is "whatever flags the computer program that analyzes your account transactions".

It could be a couple of hundred bucks.