Free Republic

In June 2014, the IRS seized $153,907.99 from Ken Quran's bank account - his life savings - even though he did nothing wrong. . . the IRS may seize a person's bank assets if it discovers a pattern of frequent transactions under $10,000. Banks are required to report cash transactions over $10,000 and it's a crime if one tries to avoid that reporting by purposefully keeping all transactions below that amount. The laws are intended to suss out drug trafficking, money laundering and organized crime or terrorist activity. But the IRS doesn't need any evidence of wrongdoing before seizing the...

This is a well-known scam. Should I call them back and have some fun?

Americans will get back some $330 billion in tax refunds this year, and more than half of that is earmarked for savings accounts or paying down debt. That's the highest percentage since 2007. Related Stories 1. Millennials Fear Filing Taxes More than Most Americans, NerdWallet Survey Finds nerdwallet 2. Average Tax Refunds Are the Biggest and Smallest in These States Motley Fool 3. Plan On Squandering Your Tax Refund? Think Again TheStreet.com 4. Is Your Blood Royal? Your Last Name May Tell You. Ancestry Sponsored î‚€ Some 66 percent of individual taxpayers will get a refund check in 2016. According...

IRS Urges Public to Stay Alert for Scam Phone Calls IRS Special Edition Tax Tip 2015-18, October 21, 2015 The IRS continues to warn consumers to guard against scam phone calls from thieves intent on stealing their money or their identity. Criminals pose as the IRS to trick victims out of their money or personal information. Here are several tips to help you avoid being a victim of these scams: Scammers make unsolicited calls.  Thieves call taxpayers claiming to be IRS officials. They demand that the victim pay a bogus tax bill. They con the victim into sending cash, usually...

Federal investigators Wednesday raided the Canton law office of state Senator Brian A. Joyce, a former assistant majority leader who has been under fire for alleged ethical lapses, including accepting free or discounted services and charging his campaign fund for a family party. In early afternoon, more than a dozen FBI agents entered the law office building in downtown Canton as passersby stopped to watch. The agents removed dozens of boxes that appeared to contain records during a raid that lasted for several hours. "The FBI and the IRS are conducting court-authorized activity in connection with an ongoing investigation," said...

A heated argument erupted Thursday at a hearing on the IRS, with Democrats and Republicans trading charges about the work of the Oversight Committee. Two Democrats on the panel accused their GOP colleagues of repeatedly holding hearings on the IRS for political reasons. In his opening statement, Oversight Committee ranking member Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) complained that the hearing was the 23rd held about the IRS in recent years. "Unfortunately, Republicans have become obsessed with investigating any and every allegation relating to the IRS, no matter how small," he said. He said Republicans are frustrated that they have never found...

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (CBS4) - It's a new twist on the old IRS scam and it ended with a Colorado Springs woman being surrounded by the SWAT team. According to KKTV, police swarmed the home on Windy Oaks Road near Northgate and Highway 83 on the north side of Colorado Springs on Tuesday after receiving several 911 calls. One call said the homeowner, Jim Davis, was threatening to kill other people. In another call someone pretending to be Jim Davis said armed men were outside demanding money.

Both cybersecurity and customer service at the Internal Revenue Service have suffered because of Obamacare, the agency's head said in remarks to Congress on Thursday. "Congress, as I noted in my testimony, has underfunded the Affordable Care Act," IRS Commissioner John Koskinen told a panel of the House Appropriations Committee. "That does not remove the statutory mandate we have that we have to implement the act."

The Internal Revenue Service said Tuesday that it identified an automated attack on its computer systems aimed at getting information that could be used to steal tax refunds. The agency said identity thieves last month used personal data of taxpayers that was stolen elsewhere in an attempt to generate e-file personal identification numbers to file fraudulent returns and claim tax refunds.

The Swiss bank UBS is one of the biggest, most powerful financial institutions in the world. As secretary of state, Hillary Clinton intervened to help it out with the IRS. And after that, the Swiss bank paid Bill Clinton $1.5 million for speaking gigs. The Wall Street Journal reported all that and more Thursday in an article that highlights huge conflicts of interest that the Clintons have created in the recent past. The piece begins by detailing how Clinton helped the global bank. “A few weeks after Hillary Clinton was sworn in as secretary of state in early 2009, she...

...U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv The U.S. Embassy in Israel is currently in Tel Aviv. Cruz wants to move it to Jerusalem, Israel's "once and eternal" capital.Commerce DepartmentIn a piece for the National Review, Cruz said shuttering the department would "close the congressional cookie jar" and promote free trade.Education DepartmentAnother standard line from Cruz: "U.S. Department of Education, which should be abolished." Cruz is a states' rights guy -- he wrote his college thesis on the 10th Amendment -- and wants to give control of schools to states or localities....Energy DepartmentCruz has said the country needs an "energy renaissance." .......

This is to inform folks. In Mexico, a man (Juan Gomez) and a woman (Maria Torres) marry. They go to the municipal office and register to marry. They are told, "Okay, you are now Juan Gomez and Maria Torres de Gomez." She is not required to change her Social Security name to show her legal married name because neither he nor she have Social Security numbers. No where are they required on documents to show their legal married names. So, whenever she chooses, she can just give her name as Maria Torres. Flash forward to the United States. Now, it's...

"They would rather Hillary Clinton, they would rather bankrupt our kids and grandkids, they'd rather lose the Supreme Court for a generation, they'd rather see our religious liberties stripped away, our Second Amendment taken away, they would rather see Islamic terrorism continue to rise and Israel continue to be under assault than actually have a true Reagan conservative in the White House who believes what he says. That shows just how messed up Washington is, but it also shows why frustration is volcanic."...

"Although as a pastor I cannot officially endorse a candidate, I want you to know I would not be here this morning if I were not absolutely convinced that Donald Trump would make a great president of the United States. ... Most Americans know we are in a mess, and as they look at Donald Trump they believe he is the one leader who can reverse the downward death spiral of this nation we love so dearly."

Leading members of Congress are ripping IRS officials for erasing a computer hard drive after a federal judge ordered it to be preserved.“The destruction of evidence subject to preservation orders and subpoenas has been an ongoing problem under your leadership at the IRS,” Committee on House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Jason Chaffetz and Rep. Jim Jordan , wrote in a letter to IRS Commissioner John Koskinen late Thursday.“It is stunning to see that the IRS does not take reasonable care to preserve documents that it is legally required to protect,” Chaffetz, a Utah Republican, and Jordan, an Ohio Republican, said...

Justice: It's not often that the victims of IRS abuse find satisfaction, but the Tea Party groups mistreated by the tax collector will get a shot. Maybe next will be an audit of the IRS — which apparently hasn't changed its ways. On Tuesday, Day 978 of the unresolved IRS scandal, a federal judge granted class-action status to as many as 300 conservative groups that have been affected by the agency's practice of unduly scrutinizing small-government organizations that sought tax-exempt status but which the IRS saw as dangerous dissidents. U.S. District Court Judge Susan Dlott's ruling also opens the door...

TAMPA, Florida, January 21, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) – Is the procreative impossibility of homosexual activity the same as heterosexuals being biologically infertile? Stetson University law professor Joseph Morrissey is suing for a tax deduction of $36,538 for in vitro fertilization treatments and the cost of a surrogate to carry twin boys for himself and his male partner. In denying Morrissey's claim, the IRS explained that for tax deductions, the medical services must be provided to the taxpayer, his spouse, or his dependent. Therefore, a surrogate does not qualify, and neither does IVF for someone other than the filer, his spouse, or...

By now most people are aware of the controversy surrounding Candidate Ted Cruz and his failure to reveal $1.3 million in campaign "loans" from Goldman Sachs and Citibank during his 2012 campaign for the senate. At the heart of the issue is a failure of Ted and Heidi Cruz to list Wall Street "loans" on the required Federal Election Commission financial reports. Together with the campaign officials the Cruz's say the non-reporting was an accidental oversight. However, a watch dog group has now filed a complaint with the FEC which is step one to beginning an FEC investigation. cruz goldman...

Despite a court preservation order, the IRS has wiped the hard drive of their former director of transfer pricing operations, Samuel Maruca. Maruca is connected to the agency’s controversial retainer of law firm Quinn Emanuel. The IRS privately contracted the litigation firm to assist in an audit of a corporate taxpayer, overlooking the firm’s lack of any experience managing sensitive tax data. The IRS has faced criticism for its decision, specifically from Finance Committee Chairman Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) 43% . In a letter to the IRS, Senator Hatch voiced his concern that the agency’s $2.2 million tax-payer funded contract...

No one wants to be audited, so knowing how long your tax return can be attacked is important. The statute of limitations on taxes is a fundamental rule allowing taxpayers to eventually cut off their exposure. It can be pretty satisfying to say to the IRS, “sorry, you’re too late.” But this year, that will be a little harder due to an expansion of the IRS’s power to audit for extra years. Traditionally, the primary IRS statute of limitations was three years. But there are many exceptions that give the IRS six years or longer. Several of those exceptions are...