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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.”
The practice has swept up dairy farmers in Maryland, an Army sergeant in Virginia saving for his children’s college education and Ms. Hinders, 67, who has borrowed money, strained her credit cards and taken out a second mortgage to keep her restaurant going. (read the whole thing)
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| Carole Hinders, last year tax agents seized her funds |
48 comments:
We should be able to seize the IRS upon suspicion.
Shut it down. Send everyone home without pay or pension (that includes revoking Lois Lerner's juicy pension) and start over with a simplified tax code, and a new entity that works on behalf of all Americans.
Our government no longer works for we the people. It is a corrupt self-serving organization run by protected elitist criminals and corrupt big government bureaucrats.
Their Inspector General told them in 2010 that they weren't stealing enough money. So they stole more. Good job if you ask me.
They've been doing it for quite a while.
Remember, it's guilty until proven innocent in Federal Tax Court.
The Mafia has been replaced by the Government.
I am not understanding this. Don't most people deposit less than $10,000 at a time in the bank?
There was a New Yorker cartoon from maybe the 1960s.
An affluent lady has awoken in her bed to see a stereotypical burglar leaving through her bedroom window with a sack of loot over his shoulder.
He doffs his cap and says, "My apologies, madam, but over-burdensome governmental regulation and regressive tax policy has made many a criminal out of the small businessman."
Funny stuff.
(Maybe you had to be there.)
I just sold a car, and deposited $15,000 in the bank.
The U.S. government is out of control on so many levels.
Unfortunately, I don't think that electing Republicans will change that.
Allen, what kind of car did you sell?
The viewfinder cover broke on my camera and I'm all, uckfay! Now that's going to be another $35.00 at least due to its unnecessary complexity of multiple pieces fitted together carefully and with ridiculously tiny watchmaker screws, just bite it. So I ordered another one off Amazon nikon parts and it was only $3.50.
See, if you exaggerate the cost in your mind by a factor of 10 then the actual cost seems a windfall.
Chip, in 1968 I bought a 1966 Austin Healey 3000 for $1,200 right after I got out of the Army.
That is the car that I sold.
I took some pictures, but haven't put them on the computer yet.
Soon my friends, soon.
Where did you deposit the rest?
That's a nifty looking vehicle.
(1) Watched Premier League last night with the wife. Tottenham vs. Newcastle. A fine match. I yelled at the TV a couple of times which was sort of a guilty pleasure. I've done that, before, watching high school wrestling. It's not too hard to figure out the connection.
Anyway, I'm glad Newcastle won. Not that I really care all that much. It's just that they were behind at the beginning and I tend to root for underdog.
Also, I thought their uniforms looked better.
(2) I don't get all that excited about their beer, though.
I'd ever turn one down, mind you. I need to make that absolutely, perfectly, crystal clear.
(3) The wife has a 2000 Lexis. It's silver. Looks kind of like the James Bond Aston Martin from the early 1960s.
Seemed relevant to mention, somehow.
ma nI typ e shity.
Not nearly as cool as Allan's but I had one of these once.
It looked good but was a piece of crap. British engineering at a low ebb.
One time I was driving to work and the horn started going off and wouldn't stop. I gave it back to the guy I bought it from (used) for hauling it off.
It did, however, have two batteries for some reason.
I'll vote for the guys and gals who vow to shut this kind of Federal crime down.
How about campaigning on things that matter not the "OMG!!! He gave a tax break to the millionaires who own private planes and yachts!!11!!1!" (A totally huge number in NC, I am sure.)
*This* is class warfare against the little guy.
Are there any politicians out there who would look at how the government is screwing the citizens and move to STOP it?
Amen to that, JAL.
The real little guy is dulldozed by the corruptocrat mafia.
This is hideous and disgusting. The IRS must be dismantled and reorganized now.
Buying something for $1200 and selling it for $15000 most like creates a taxable event. Evading taxes is illegal.
Meade - did you actually read the article?
You should work for the IRS. A step up from mowing lawns, and, the pay is great. You'd fit right in. Are you ready for Hillary?
Their money was seized under an increasingly controversial area of law known as civil asset forfeiture, which allows law enforcement agents to take property they suspect of being tied to crime even if no criminal charges are filed. Law enforcement agencies get to keep a share of whatever is forfeited.
Critics say this incentive has led to the creation of a law enforcement dragnet, with more than 100 multiagency task forces combing through bank reports, looking for accounts to seize.
Sweet!
Incentives! Government work Hillary and Warren identify with.
If the tax code were fair, perhaps people wouldn't want to cheat it? Of course there are tax cheats out there, but probably not anyone in that article.
Greece is an example. The tax code is so ridiculous, so punitive, many work under the table to avoid it.
We have returned to the Clinton era tax hikes, and we were promised perfection and utopia.
Our government refuses to spend our hard-earned tax revenue on actual infrastructure projects. Instead, our money has been wasted. Shovel ready shoveled into the toilet. Shoveled into the left's special interest pockets. Tax hikes for fraud.
I'm not sure how to post pictures from my computer to here.
Any suggestions?
"Meade - did you actually read the article?"
I actually did, AA. Kudos to the New York Times for being on top of the story about abuse of the asset forfeiture laws by government agencies, right?
Until those laws are changed, it's probably not smart to deposit large amounts of cash in the bank, which is something drug dealers, tax evaders, and other criminals do. If you buy a car for $1200 and then sell it 50 years later for $15000, you probably owe tax on the income from your profit. It might be wise to talk to a lawyer experienced in asset forfeiture law before depositing your cash so you can prove that you have not evaded any taxes and you are not involved in criminal activity.
Dear Numbnuts, how much money would 1968s $1,200 be worth in today's money?
Can I deduct the money I spent buying the paint?
How about the money I spent having it bored out .003 and the money for the new pistons and rings?
The big government koolaid: First, Prove you are not a criminal. Lawyer up, vast middle class.
My 1966 Austin Healey 3000
This summer I resided the garage with galvanized ribbed steel
Another look
Rear of the car.
You can see the burl oak face of the glove compartment, but the whole dash is like that. I used the pour-on high gloss stuff that you mix together. Takes 24 hours to dry, then looks like there is 50 coats of varnish.
In the back ground you can see that I tore off the cedar shakes that I put on the house ion the 1970s, and replaced them with white pro rib steel siding. They are screwed in every 4' into 1x4s, and in between I have 3/4" foil faced foam sheathing. I have the two gable ends left above 8'. I installed new windows and one new door. Got rid of the other door that I never used and put a window in it's place.
A man's work is never done.
"Can I deduct the money I spent buying the paint?
How about the money I spent having it bored out .003 and the money for the new pistons and rings? "
Those are questions you need to take to a CPA or a tax attorney, Allen. I'd imagine you could even deduct storage expenses but I'm not qualified to give you specific tax advise on your business transaction.
I'm just a person on the internet trying to help you stay out of trouble with the law now that you've publicly bragged about the sweet sweet deal you made on your taxable event.
"My 1966 Austin Healey 3000"
Wait. I thought you said you sold it. For cash. How is it still *yours*?
Why did you only get $15K for it? I would think a car like that would fetch closer to 50.
I mean, it sounds like you might have taken a net loss on the deal once everything is tallied up. You did keep all the receipts and records of (deductible) expenses so you can deduct those from the gross income you received when you sold it, didn't you?
"how much money would 1968s $1,200 be worth in today's money?"
$176.90
Why?
Fuck off, Meade. I'll make my own decisions.
AllenS said...
"Fuck off, Meade. I'll make my own decisions."
Then why did you ask for help in making a simple inflation calculation?
But I assume you, as an adult citizen with freedom of agency, will make your own decisions, Allen. And I'm sure the government will make the same assumption.
AllenS - You shoulda called......I've wanted a 3000 for decades. Dang it.
Allen makes his own decisions, Mike.
Haz, it all happened so suddenly. I got a phone call from a man from Beverly Hills CA who looked at pictures of it that I sent to his friend in Paris France, and offered me $15,000. He has never driven it, and didn't even ask me if it ran. His only question was "does it still look the same as in the pictures?" My insurance company had valued it at $23,000, but then I would have to try and advertise to sell it, and with a rare car like this, it would have been a hassle according to people that I know. Most "buyers" show up just to take it for a spin.
I Googled the man who bought it, and money is no problem for him as you can well imagine. I couldn't pass up the offer.
Yesterday, a car hauler from CA called and said he's trying to find someone around here to pick it up. I've already cashed the check, and will feel better when it's gone.
Poor Allen. Making all his own bad decisions for himself.
Allen - It's nice when it works out that easily, isn't it? I've sold a few motorcycles online, and when the buyer isn't a jerk, it's usually a very simple and easy transaction.
I've sold a few cycles locally, and inevitably someone shows up who doesn't have a DL and wants to take the bike for a ride. Or they won't have money until next month. Or will I take half now and half in January. Or there are Russians waiting three blocks away with a box truck and the bike never comes back. Pain in the butt.
"Pain in the butt."
Two happiest days in a butt owner's life: The day he gets his big butt and the day he gets rid of his big butt.
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