IRS – Page 2 – The Burning Platform

The Militarization of the US Goes Beyond Police Departments

Are they arming themselves against terrorists or you?

Nonmilitary federal agencies have spent almost US$1.5 billion on guns, ammunition, and military-style equipment.

A new report by a taxpayer watchdog group reveals that the growing militarization in the United States goes beyond police departments by showing how nonmilitary federal agencies are arming themselves like military units.

The report “The Militarization of America” examines government expenditures by 67 federal agencies between 2006 and 2014 and found that they spent US$1.48 billion stockpiling guns, ammunition and other military-style equipment.

“The recent growth of the federal arsenal begs the questions: Just who are the feds planning to battle?” American Tranparency’s Adam Andrzejewski, the author of the report, recently wrote in Forbes.

The report states that “administrative agencies including the Food and Drug Administration, Small Business Administration, Smithsonian Institution, Social Security Administration, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, United States Mint, Department of Education, Bureau of Engraving and Printing, National Institute of Standards and Technology, and many other agencies purchased guns, ammo, and military-style equipment.”

For example, the Internal Revenue Service spent nearly US$11 million arming itself, while the Environmental Protection Agency spent US$3.1 million.

The report also states: “The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service spent US$4.77 million purchasing shotguns, .308 caliber rifles, night vision goggles, propane cannons, liquid explosives, pyro supplies, buckshot, LP gas cannons, drones, remote controlled helicopters, thermal cameras, military waterproof thermal infrared scopes, and more.”

“As the Obama administration and its allies are pushing hard for an assault weapons ban on private citizens, taxpayers are asking why IRS agents need AR-15s,” wrote report author Andrzejewski. “After grabbing legal power, federal bureaucrats are amassing firepower. It’s time to scale back the federal arsenal.”

The IRS could stop you from flying. Here’s how…

Guest Post by Mark Nestmann

Imagine arriving at your local airport one morning for a domestic flight to a neighboring city. You approach the security checkpoint and the TSA lackey asks for your identification. After handing him your driver’s license, you prepare to be groped as you pass through the checkpoint.

But instead, the TSA man tells you your driver’s license is no longer accepted as identification for domestic flights. He asks you for your passport.

Unfortunately, you don’t have a passport. A few months ago, you received a letter from the State Department stating that since you owed the IRS money, your passport was hereby revoked, effective immediately. It further ordered you to turn your passport in.

You’re officially grounded – courtesy of the IRS.

How could this happen? Thank Congress for enacting a pair of obscure laws, one in 2005 and another in 2015.

#1 The Real ID Act of 2005 established federally mandated “national uniform standards” for driver’s licenses… 43 separate requirements in all. State driver’s licenses that fail to conform to these standards are no longer valid for any federal “official purpose.” Examples of “official purposes” include boarding an airplane, buying a firearm, or even entering a federal courthouse.

Originally, the deadline for states to comply with the law was December 31, 2009. But the Department of Homeland Security repeatedly extended it. However, after October 1, 2020, you won’t be able to use a noncompliant driver’s license to identify yourself for any federal “official purpose,” including boarding an airplane. And 26 states have yet to comply with the new requirements.

#2 H.R. 22, the FAST Act (Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act) passed Congress last December. It added a little-noticed section to the Internal Revenue Code entitled, “Revocation or Denial of Passport in Case of Certain Tax Delinquencies.” This section empowers the State Department to “deny, revoke, or limit the passport of individuals” with a “seriously delinquent tax debt.” This is defined as a tax debt that exceeds $50,000 for which the IRS has filed a notice of lien or levy. The act doesn’t solely apply to just criminal tax cases either; any tax debt over this threshold could trigger passport revocation.

Continue reading “The IRS could stop you from flying. Here’s how…”

LETTER WE WOULD LOVE TO WRITE TO THE IRS

Dear IRS,

Enclosed is my 2015 Tax Return & payment. Please take note of the attached article from the USA Today newspaper. In the article, you will see that the Pentagon is paying $171.50 for hammers and NASA has paid $600.00 for a toilet seat.

Please find enclosed four toilet seats (value $2,400) and six hammers (value $1,029). This brings my total payment to $3,429.00. Please note the overpayment of $22.00 and apply it to the “Presidential Election Fund,” as noted on my return.

Might I suggest that you send the above mentioned fund a “1.5 inch screw”. (See attached article…HUD paid $22.00 for a 1.5 inch Phillips Head Screw.)

It has been a pleasure to pay my tax bill this year, and I look forward to paying it again next year. I just saw an article about the Pentagon and screwdrivers.”

A letter to the IRS

Via Political Humor

Will the IRS Take Your Passport?

Guest Post by Ron Paul

A little-noticed provision in the highway funding bill Congress passed this week threatens a right most Americans take for granted: the right to travel abroad. The provision in question gives the Internal Revenue Service the authority to revoke the passport of anyone the IRS claims owes more than $50,000 in back taxes.

Congress is giving the IRS this new power because a decline in gas tax receipts has bankrupted the federal highway trust fund. Of course, Congress would rather squeeze more money from the American people than reduce spending, repeal costly regulations, or return responsibility for highway construction to the states, local governments, and the private sector. On the other hand, most in Congress fear the political consequences of raising gas, or other, taxes. Giving the IRS new powers allows politicians to increase government revenue without having to increase tax rates. Some even brag about how they are “cracking down on tax cheats.”

OBAMACARE – THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON TAKING

Isn’t it interesting the mainstream media makes barely a peep about the ongoing and worsening Obamacare debacle. Healthcare premiums, co-pays and deductibles are soaring, while doctor and plan choices contract to a minuscule level. Recent surveys reveal the hardship being inflicted upon families across the nation. Those who are willfully baffled by the lack of consumer spending need look no further than Obamacare and its impact on the budgets of hard working Americans.

According to a survey by LIMRA, an insurance and financial services trade association, six in 10 workers agreed that the rising cost of health insurance directly affects how much they set aside in their workplace retirement savings plan. Employees are being forced to cut back on their retirement savings in order to meet the skyrocketing cost of their health insurance. Based on the numbers being bandied about by the Kaiser Family Foundation, it seems average families will soon have to decide between food and healthcare. Remember Obama’s quotes in 2008- 2009 when he was selling this bloated pig of a plan to you?

“We will start by reducing premiums by as much as $2,500 per family.”

“If you like the plan you have, you can keep it. If you like the doctor you have, you can keep your doctor, too. The only change you’ll see are falling costs as our reforms take hold.”

Millions of people have been kicked out of their existing health plans and have seen their premiums and deductibles go up by double digits. Small business owners are being forced out of business. And now the fines, mandates, and taxes really begin to kick in. At least median household real wages are lower than they were in 1989. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation:

Continue reading “OBAMACARE – THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON TAKING”

The Constitution’s Big Lie

Guest Post by Antonius Aquinas

One of the greatest hoaxes ever perpetrated upon Americans at the time of its telling and which is still trumpeted to this very day is the notion that the U.S. Constitution contains within its framework mechanisms which limit its power. The “separation of powers,” where power is distributed among the three branches – legislative, executive, judicial – is supposedly the primary check on the federal government’s aggrandizement.

This sacred held tenet of American political history has once again been disproved.

Last Friday (October 23), the Attorney General’s office announced that it was “closing our investigation and will not seek any criminal charges” against former Internal Revenue Service’s director of Exempt Organizations, Lois Lerner, or, for that matter, anyone else from the agency over whether they improperly targeted Tea Party members, populists, or any other groups, which voiced anti-government sentiments or views.

The Department of Justice statement read:

The probe found ‘substantial evidence of mismanagement,
poor judgment and institutional inertia leading to the
belief by many tax-exempt applicants that the IRS targeted
them based on their political viewpoints. But poor
management is not a crime.’ (My emphasis)

Incredibly, it added:

We found no evidence that any IRS official acted based on
political, discriminatory, corrupt, or other inappropriate
motives that would support a criminal prosecution.*

That the DOJ will take no action against one of its rogue departments demonstrates the utter lawlessness and totalitarian nature of the federal government. The DOJ’s refusal to punish documented wrongdoing by the nation’s tax collection agency shows the blatant hypocrisy of Obummer, who promised that his presidency would be one of “transparency.”

Continue reading “The Constitution’s Big Lie”

IRS possessed Stingray cellphone surveillance gear, documents reveal

Via the Guardian

Exclusive: Invoices reveal tax service, 13th federal agency to use secretive dragnet, upgraded device that pretends to be cellphone tower to gather metadata

An illustration of Stingray surveillance technology. — Often not much bigger than a suitcase, Stingray devices are easily portable in gathering information by imitating cellphone towers. Illustration: Electronic Frontier Foundation via Flickr

The Internal Revenue Service is the latest in a growing list of US federal agencies known to have possessed the sophisticated cellphone dragnet equipment known as Stingray, according to documents obtained by the Guardian.

Invoices obtained following a request under the Freedom of Information Act show purchases made in 2009 and 2012 by the federal tax agency with Harris Corporation, one of a number of companies that manufacture the devices. Privacy advocates said the revelation “shows the wide proliferation of this very invasive surveillance technology”.

The 2009 IRS/Harris Corp invoice is mostly redacted under section B(4) of the Freedom of Information Act, which is intended to protect trade secrets and privileged information. However, an invoice from 2012, which is also partially redacted, reports that the agency spent $65,652 on upgrading a Stingray II to a HailStorm, a more powerful version of the same device, as well as $6,000 on training from Harris Corporation.

Stingrays are the best-known example of a type of device called an IMSI-catcher, also known as “cell-site simulators”. About the size of a briefcase, they work by pretending to be cellphone towers in order to strip metadata and in some cases even content from phones which connect to them.

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CONFUSION, DELUSIONS & ILLUSIONS

Two recent surveys, along with numerous other studies and data, reveal most American households to be living on the brink of catastrophe, but continuing to act in a reckless and delusionary manner. There have certainly been economic factors beyond the control of average Americans that have resulted in real median household incomes remaining stagnant for the last 36 years. The unholy alliance of mega-corporations, Wall Street and bought off corrupt politicians have gutted the nation of millions of good paying jobs under the guise of globalization, while utilizing debt, derivatives and financial schemes to enrich themselves. The malfeasance of the sociopathic privileged class does not discharge the personal responsibility of citizens for living within their means. A lack of discipline, inability to delay gratification, failure to understand basic mathematical concepts, materialistic envy, absence of critical thinking skills, and a delusionary view of the world have left the majority of Americans broke and in debt.

The data that captured my attention was how little the average American household has in savings. Roughly 62% of Americans have less than $1,000 in savings and 21% don’t even have a savings account, according to a new survey of more than 5,000 adults conducted this month by Google Consumer Survey for personal finance website GOBankingRates.com. This dreadful data is reinforced by a similar survey of 1,000 adults carried out earlier this year by personal finance site Bankrate.com, which also found that 62% of Americans have no emergency savings for a medical crisis, car repair, or unanticipated household expenditure.

Continue reading “CONFUSION, DELUSIONS & ILLUSIONS”

No Kidding: IRS starts Punishing Businesses for Helping Workers Buy Insurance

Obamacare – the gift that keeps on taking. Not only hasn’t it covered the 30 million uninsured, saved families $2,500 per year, added one cent to the national debt, or improved healthcare, but it is now destroying more small businesses with outrageous fines for not complying with its ridiculous mandates. Read it and weep if you are a small business owner or employee of a small business. Obamacare started out as a shitshow and has graduated to a clusterfuck. But at least we now know what’s in it. Thanks Pelosi.

Via NFIB

Washington, DC – An obscure IRS rule took effect on July 1 under which small businesses that get caught helping their workers buy insurance or pay medical bills can be fined 18 times more than larger employers that don’t provide coverage at all, warned the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) today.

“It’s the biggest penalty that no one is talking about,” said NFIB Policy Director Kevin Kuhlman. “The penalty for compensating employees for healthcare-related expenses is enough to destroy most small businesses.”

Under the rule, which appears nowhere in the Affordable Care Act, employers who do not offer a group health plan, but give their workers additional pay to compensate for the purchase of health insurance or direct medical expenses can be fined $100 per day, per employee. Over the course of a year that’s $36,500 per employee up to $500,000 in total. The penalty on businesses for failing to comply with the employer mandate is only $2,000 per year.

“It’s hard to believe Congress or the President intended to punish employers much more severely for actually helping their workers,” said Kuhlman. “Nevertheless, that’s the consequence and most small businesses don’t know it.”

Continue reading “No Kidding: IRS starts Punishing Businesses for Helping Workers Buy Insurance”

IRS Admits Refunding Billions On Fake Tax Returns

Your beloved government drone agency – the IRS – has given $11 billion of your tax dollars to criminals over three years. They make the Obamaphone program look like a well run venture. Everything the government touches turns to shit. The government is incompetent, bureaucratic, ignorant, stupid, evil, and a detriment to our lives. Despite the facts which prove how incompetent they are (Iraq War, Afghan War, Amtrak safety, Obamacare, Medicare, Medicaid, SSDI, $200 trillion of unfunded liabilities) more than half the sheep in this country think the government should be given more power over our lives. What a pathetic country of spineless wimps we have become.

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/29/2015 13:15 -0400

Just hours after being force to admit that they were hacked (by Russians apparently), an inspector general’s report shows that The IRS has rather remarkably continued to pay refunds on hundreds of thousands of fraudulent tax returns in recent years, and sent dozens of checks to the same addresses, including in Eastern Europe and elsewhere. While some progress has been made, $2.3 billion of real US taxpayer’s money was wrongfully refunded to fake US taxpayers… but with this new cyber-attack, we suspect that number will soar.

The report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration shows the Internal Revenue Service continued to pay refunds on hundreds of thousands of fraudulent tax returns in recent years, and sent dozens of checks to the same addresses, including in Eastern Europe and elsewhere. As The Wall Street Journal reports,

The new IG report says the IRS took steps for the 2013 filing season that resulted in “increased detection and prevention of identity theft tax returns.” But it said the agency continued to be hampered by several factors, including its inability to look at employer income data during the early weeks of the annual filing season.

The IG found that the IRS missed almost 800,000 potentially fraudulent tax returns.

In response, the IRS said it disputed some of the IG’s methodology. It thinks more than half of the nearly 800,000 returns identified by the IG should not be considered potentially fraudulent.

“Much more work remains, but it’s important to note that our actions have led to an increasing number of fraudulent returns being detected and stopped — despite challenging budgets in recent years,” the IRS said in a statement.

The IG also found “multiple tax returns with the same addresses and/or bank accounts” that the IRS computer filters didn’t catch. An analysis shows that of the top 10 addresses where the IRS sent multiple fraudulent refunds, three were in Bulgaria, one in Ireland and one in Lithuania. Three others were in Florida. Hundreds of refunds went to some of the addresses, and hundreds also went to the same bank accounts.

The IRS said in response that it recently has put a limit of three on the number of direct deposit refunds to a single financial account or pre-paid debit card. It also has been working to limit the number of refunds going to the same physical address.

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Don’t Panic! The Hitchhiker’s Guide To Offshore Freedom

Guest Post by Mark Nestmann

I’m a die-hard science fiction fan, and one of my all-time favorites in this genre is Douglas Adams’ superb The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Only seconds before aliens demolish planet Earth to make way for an interstellar shortcut, the book’s protagonist, Arthur Dent, is whisked aboard a spaceship. His savior is Ford Prefect, an alien stationed on Earth to conduct research for an updated version of the Guide.

Upon being whisked into the spaceship, Ford hands Arthur a copy of the Guide. On the cover are the words “Don’t Panic.” “I like the cover,” Arthur says. “‘Don’t Panic.’ It’s the first helpful or intelligible thing anybody’s said to me all day.”

A few weeks ago, I received a letter that reminded me of this dialogue. It was from Bank Austria, where I had an account for several years, until closing it in 2009. The letter, which came from the bank’s “FATCA Task Force,” informed me (in both German and English) that I needed to authorize the bank to release my account information to the IRS. Otherwise, the bank would:

… report aggregate information (the total number of account holders of the Bank who do not consent, the aggregate account balance and payment amount) to the IRS. Such information may give rise to a group request by the IRS for specific information about my/our business.

Despite the Guide’s advice, I must admit I felt a brief moment of panic when I first read the letter. I was certain that I had reported the account every year that I had it open, as required. Was it possible that the bank never followed my instructions to close the account in 2009? If not, would I face IRS fines of $10,000 annually since 2010 ($40,000 in all) for failing to report the account?

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