IRS seizes woman’s entire bank account because she deposited money ‘suspiciously’

 Via Police State USA

The agency’s expansive toolchest is described as that of a “financial police state;” often targeting innocent Americans.

IRS Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

ARNOLDS PARK, IOWA — A woman’s entire bank account was seized by the Internal Revenue Service — without so much as a criminal charge — because the agency claimed she deposited money “suspiciously.”

This is the plight of Carole Hinders, who has been running a Mexican restaurant for the last four decades. Accepting cash only from customers at the restaurant, she makes frequent cash deposits to her checking account.

As part of the federal government’s dragnet surveillance of the civilian population, everyone’s banking activities are monitored for “red flag” activities. One of these is frequent cash deposits totaling less than $10,000. Using this vague criteria, Ms. Hinders was thought to fit the profile of a financial criminal.

Acting on this red flag, the IRS seized Ms. Hinders’ entire checking account, containing roughly $33,000. This was done without a trial or a conviction, much less a criminal charge. She was afforded no presumption of innocence before being depleted of her wealth.

The robbery is considered legal, unfortunately, through a practice known as civil asset forfeiture. This practice involves the government confiscating cash, vehicles, land, or other property from suspected criminals — often without enough evidence to press criminal charges.

In this case, the IRS suspected that Ms. Hinders was “structuring” her deposits in strategic amounts in order to avoid federally mandated reporting that kicks in amounts greater than $10,000. The New York Times explained Ms. Hinders’ situation:

There is nothing illegal about depositing less than $10,000 cash unless it is done specifically to evade the reporting requirement. But often a mere bank statement is enough for investigators to obtain a seizure warrant. In one Long Island case, the police submitted almost a year’s worth of daily deposits by a business, ranging from $5,550 to $9,910. The officer wrote in his warrant affidavit that based on his training and experience, the pattern “is consistent with structuring.” The government seized $447,000 from the business, a cash-intensive candy and cigarette distributor that has been run by one family for 27 years.

There are often legitimate business reasons for keeping deposits below $10,000, said Larry Salzman, a lawyer with the Institute for Justice who is representing Ms. Hinders and the Long Island family pro bono. For example, he said, a grocery store owner in Fraser, Mich., had an insurance policy that covered only up to $10,000 cash. When he neared the limit, he would make a deposit.

Ms. Hinders said that she did not know about the reporting requirement and that for decades, she thought she had been doing everyone a favor.

Once targeted by the IRS, victims like Ms. Hinders are forced to either struggle to prove their innocence — a daunting task, especially with a seized bank account — or else cut losses and walk away from the money entirely.

The federal government began surveilling Americans’ banking activities under President Nixon with the The Bank Secrecy Act of 1970, which required that banks file “Currency Transaction Reports” to the IRS (specifically: FinCEN Form 112) on every individual who deposits or withdraws more than $10,000 in cash to or from a personal bank account on a given day. These reports indicate the financial activities that took place and include the individual’s bank account number, name, address, and social security number.

The financial dragnet was pitched to America as a way to catch tax evaders and money launderers. It actually marked the end of financial privacy and soon evolved into a tool used to harass innocent Americans. The IRS enjoyed a battery of new powers, which were increased several times thereafter.

In 2001, the USA PATRIOT Act expanded financial surveillance efforts to the so-called War on Terror. The Patriot Act was said to contain a “package of unconstitutional expansions of the financial police state,” according to one of bill’s few dissenters, Congressman Ron Paul of Texas. Among other things, the law prohibited bankers from informing customers that they had been reported to the IRS. Paul said the bill had “more to do with the ongoing war against financial privacy than with the war against international terrorism,”

Paul summarized his objections in a statement to Congress prior to the bill’s passage:

“Among the most obnoxious provisions of this bill are: expanding the war on cash by creating a new federal crime of taking over $10,000 cash into or out of the United States; codifying the unconstitutional authority of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) to snoop into the private financial dealings of American citizens; and expanding the ‘suspicious activity reports’ mandate to broker-dealers, even though history has shown that these reports fail to significantly aid in apprehending criminals. These measures will actually distract from the battle against terrorism by encouraging law enforcement authorities to waste time snooping through the financial records of innocent Americans who simply happen to demonstrate an ‘unusual’ pattern in their financial dealings.”

The IRS has been steadily increasing its use of preemptive civil asset forfeiture — with agency seizures up 460% from 2005 to 2012, according to data from the Institute for Justice. Every year, scores of Americans are targeted by the IRS for dubious reasons and depleted of their wealth in the name of law enforcement and national security. The extensive federal powers are very aptly described as those found in a “financial police state,” not a free society.

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card802
card802

Why doesn’t the IRS go talk to the good Rev Sharpton or federal fucking government employees?

Leave us sheep alone.

Billy
Billy

I’m startin’ to develop a powerful dislike for those fellas…

ASIG
ASIG

“Pattern is consistent with structuring”

That could mean anything. You could own rentals and your rents come to $9800 every month. OH that sure looks suspicious!!! Let’s take that money. Or you could have a business with income that varies every month so they could interpret that as you’re trying to be sneaky. They can call anything suspicious.

That’s the equivalent of being stopped for going 64 MPH in a 65 MPH zone because you must be trying to avoid being stopped because you’re probably up to no good, transporting drugs or drug money. OH you have $250 on you— Drug Money, We’re taking it!!! OH yea and we’re taking your car too!!

Kill Bill
Kill Bill

Now that thuglicans have the house and senate, with a dim sitting in vesica piscium, this shit will stop.

HHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHABWAHHAHABWAHHA.

b b

Kill Bill , blow me .

Kill Bill
Kill Bill

bb, you are evidence of the ills of self trepanation.

Now google that. boyo boy

Kill Bill
Kill Bill

BTW, bb, shit is not inflatable, blowing on it just pisses off the flys and maggots you have worked to accumulate.

IndenturedServant

With apologies to Pirate Jo……….don’t keep your money in the bank!

It’s gonna get a lot worse before it gets better!

llpoh
llpoh

If you deposit more than $10k in cash, you have to fill out a form. So it is a severe nuisance for folks that have a cash business to fill out a form whenever they deposit $10,000 – it takes time. So, logically, they opt to deposit less money more frequently.

That is a crime under current law, and the penalty for the crime is you forfeit everything in your bank account. by intentionally depositing under $10k, for whatever reason, you have broken the law and poof, your money is gone. The money itself may have been legally obtained. The issue is that the law is not about where you got it, but that you are intentionally hiding where you got it from Da Man.

A corollary to this is the FBAR law. If you have more than $10k overseas, and fail to report that fact on a form, whether or not you owe any tax on it or make any money on it, or properly reported any earnings on it, you have committed a crime. The penalty is half the balance of the account per year. So if you had $10k in an account for 6 years, the penalty would be $30k – you would owe 3 times the amount in the account. No shit.

People, y’all need to understand it is no longer about the source of the money, or where it was earned – it is all about the government knowing where you have the money, and also about the ability to take it from you for little or no reason.

Welcome to the New World Order.

Jim
Jim

Filed and paid this year on the 14th as always. Mid September I get a notice I haven’t paid and there is a number to call if I wish to dispute this. So that night I call and find out my cheque bounced. Only I didn’t pay by cheque I paid electronically. When one does this the IRS takes the money from your account and gives an EFTPS (Electronic Federal Tax Payment System) number. Just to be clear this number is generated by the IRS proving your payment has gone through. The number is not given until the payment has gone through. So I tell the nice lady I didn’t pay by cheque and have my EFTPS number as proof I have paid. She didn’t know what an EFTPS number was neither did her supervisor. I was told to get a copy of my bank statement showing when the cheque tried to clear my bank the funds were present. As the computer said I paid by cheque. Thinking this fool doesn’t know what is going on I said OK and called back the next morning. Same result neither the woman I spoke to or her supervisor knew what an EFTPS number was and insisted I had paid by cheque. This nice lady told me it was getting late and she needed to end the call. So I called back a few hours later. The lady I spoke to this time told me ‘Oh your file has gone to collections there is nothing we can do for you’. So armed with a new number I spoke to yet another drone who insisted I paid by cheque, had no idea what an EFTPS number was. Her supervisor knew what an EFTPS number was and was able to confirm I had paid, but were terribly sorry sir as the file is in collections there is nothing we can do about your penalties, yes I agree it was our mistake but you needed to correct it before it was in collections, yes I know we didn’t send out a notice until after it was in collections. How would you like to pay your bill. I don’t have the money at hand I’ll call back tomorrow. Spoke to a tax lawyer, she would handle the case but the cost would be over double the penalty, I caved and paid.

llpoh
llpoh

Pussy.

A. R. Wasem
A. R. Wasem

You can never give the fedgov thuggocrats an inch – they’ll figure you for a patsy and take everything. Stand with Rand and BC-LR to all

Rise Up
Rise Up

Back in the mid-90’s I owed money for taxes for the first time (all other years I had more withheld than what I owed). So I cut them a check and submitted my tax forms on time. Some weeks later I received a letter stating they didn’t receive my payment (it was mailed). Luckily I had a copy of the check and mailed it to them and that resolved the matter. This was during a period when IRS employees were siphoning off checks and somehow cashing or converting them. I can’t prove that’s what happened to my check, but it wouldn’t surprise me. The IRS is one of the most corrupt arms of government, but many other agencies are catching up quickly.

It’s always humorous to me when someone revels in getting a “refund”. Getting a tax “refund” only means you lent a portion of your earnings to the government tax free for 12 months. If you have a constant wage you can structure (no pun intended in reference to the article) your W2 in order to “break even” or close to it and won’t have to pay or get refunded a major amount.

TE
TE

Convicted and punished for crimes that there is not enough evidence to prosecute.

King George must be so very happy and feeling justified.

This is what happens when the vast majority of society only exists and eats because of the minority.

THEY DON’T CARE.

Go out and ask 100 people and I’ll wager that less than 1 non business owner would have a problem with this.

You might even here the same shit you heard with drug law confiscations, “well, they must be doing something wrong or OUR government wouldn’t be doing this!” And, my personal favorite, “they must be criminals because CONSTITUTION!”

We are the most corrupted, polluted, worthless bunch of cesspool dwellers ever.

We actually deserve what is happening to us. Well, most of us do.

The rest of us will pay for it.

So, nothing new, aren’t we already the only ones that DO pay?

DC Sunsets

Llpoh, the BANK fills out the form. You don’t have to do jack.

There are a million ways to finish the statement: “There are two kinds of people in the world….”

One of them is,

“…those stupid enough to think they live in a “free country” and those who understand that Franz Kafka long ago too control of the “system” so anyone who does not understand the Real Rules will be screwed by them.”

If you don’t calculate your own taxes, then you don’t know the rules.
If you don’t pay attention to the police state regulations, then you’re just asking for it.

Any time you will be moving $10,000 or more in cash (or cash-like stuff), make sure you withdrew it in an amount $10,000.01 or more so the CTR is generated. Any time you will be depositing a total of more than $10,000.00 in cash over a period measured in months, make sure to ACCUMULATE that amount so a CTR is generated.

If you want to complain about the endless bureaucRATS snooping in your personal business, be sure to buy a ticket on the WayBack machine and travel to 1913 when the 16th amendment was (supposedly) passed. Our great grandparents were ASSHOLES.

Whenever there is an income tax, you’ll find a bureaucRAT fondling your wife’s (or teenage daughter’s) underwear. No invasiveness is too invasive once you open the door to such evil.

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