Posted on 04/27/2005 7:59:32 AM PDT by PreciousLiberty
In 2006, it'll be a whole lot harder to cheat on your taxes, even accidentally. In fact, you'll also have to field calls from the government over odd deposits that you make, e.g. a deposit at an odd time of the month, or a cash deposit, or a deposit made from a foreign bank, etc. That's because, thanks to the PATRIOT act, banks are spending billions on highly sophisticated, government-mandated anti-money laundering (AML) software that will track every last transaction of every last customer in order to build up individual customer profiles and look for "suspicious" activity. And when they find some suspicious activity, they're going to want an explanation out of you, regardless of whether or not you fit any sort of terrorist profile.
(Excerpt) Read more at arstechnica.com ...
I believe an income tax should have been unconstitutional. However, a national sales tax will be open to abuses similar to the income tax. Many more items will be sold on the black market.
My wife, for instance, is a bargain shopper. She's as likely to buy something at a yard sale as at a store. Unless the taxes are charged at the manufacturing site or at the ports the goods come in on, a national sales tax will solve nothing.
I think wires are not scrutinized as they are completely transparent. It is cash that gets the feds excited.
I disagree. Its always easier to hassle those operating within the system than those outside of it. It takes people and political will to secure the borders. Computers can be programmed to run through astronomical numbers of transactions.
"Transactions of $10,000.00 or more have been tracked by the Fed for at least 20 years. I am not sure of the legislation that allowed for this; but I know from friends in the banking industry that this has existed for quite a while."
Exactly. Democrats are just using it to show the vast oppresion they endure under George Bush.
They simply ignore the fact that the rules were already in place.
That is why I print my own money!
Oh cool! How do I get my jeans?
"I believe an income tax should have been unconstitutional"
Well it was until they followed the procedure for amending the constitution and made it constitutional, unfortunately.
The NRST advocates haven't mentioned how they are going to get the states to actually repeal the 16th. Any NRST with repealing the 16th is simply stupid stupid stupid stupid as we will have 30% income tax and 20% nrst before long, british-style.
Like people who travel a lot for their job and have to file a lot of expense reports. I ran into some harassment over this during my previous job. I was on the road 60% of the time, and frequently had $2-3K deposited into my account for expense reimbursement.
Deposits have been tracked for a long time, mostly to check money laundering. Not much new here.
"Suppose you return a bunch of bottles and cans and throw the $12 bucks in your account. No chance that this is real.
"
Suppose you do. Do you really suppose that the government is interested in $12 deposits? How silly!
I sold a truck last month...the 24' UHaul I bought to move to Minnesota in. It wasn't a lot of money...just $4000. I deposited 40 $100 bills in my checking account the same day.
The government might be interested in a deposit like that, I suppose, but I have copies of the paperwork. Still, I doubt that they're interested even in that deposit, since it's not something that happens a lot in my account.
I'd rather the government didn't fiddle with that kind of stuff, but I suppose it's inevitable. Paranoia is a waste of mental energy.
Meanwhile, illegal aliens keep crossing over our borders, pedophiles keep getting released into the community, public schools are crumbling .........
But I digress
LOL!
Though most people do not know it, financial institutions are required by the federal government to spy on their customers. Congress authorized the Treasury Department to require them to do so in the Bank Secrecy Act.
The Bank Secrecy Act authorizes the Treasury Department to require financial institutions to maintain records of personal financial transactions that "have a high degree of usefulness in criminal, tax and regulatory investigations and proceedings." It also authorizes the Treasury Department to require any financial institution to report any "suspicious transaction relevant to a possible violation of law or regulation." These reports, called "Suspicious Activity Reports" are filed with the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network ("FinCEN").
This is done secretly, without the consent or knowledge of bank customers, any time a financial institution decides that a transaction is "suspicious." The reports are made available electronically to every U.S. Attorney's Office and to 59 law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, Secret Service, and Customs Service. A law enforcement agency does not have to be suspicious of an actual crime before it accesses a report, and no court order, warrant, subpoena, or even written request is needed. Law enforcement agencies can, and allegedly do, download the entire harvest of new information from FinCEN whenever they want it.
"any deposit over $5000 would be considered "suspicious"
Would make most house closings suspicious"
"Supposedly it was implemented to nab drug traffickers who deposited large amounts of cash to banks, or paid for items like cars with cash."
I don't know. I have paid for every car I've ever owned with cash, generally withdrawn from the bank in $100 bills. The feds have never come to ask me about those transactions, and I've bought many cars.
They may have knowledge of the transaction, but assuming you didn't purchase a certain kind of car, they may have figured it wasn't worth investigating. If you bought a Ferrari with cash, that probably would raise a red flag.
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