Posted on 07/30/2019 9:32:32 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Perhaps the only sure things in life really are death and taxes, but taxes and the federal agency that collects them should not be the untimely death of small businesses.
Earlier this month, President Trump signed the Taxpayer First Act that Congress passed unanimously to reform civil asset forfeiture rules that allow the IRS to confiscate private property and assets without filing criminal charges against would-be defendants. The new law’s structural reforms are long overdue, but they take a solid first step toward improving things at the IRS.
Trump can take at least two more steps forward by directing the IRS to change its draconian rules for seizing and freezing business accounts, and he wouldn’t need a single vote in a deeply divided Congress to do it.
First, the president can and should require the IRS to make sure that the investigated taxpayer has actually broken the law before it seizes the taxpayer’s business assets. Second, Trump can and should direct the IRS to streamline and expedite its process for returning any assets that the agency has impounded mistakenly.
The Trump administration has professed its desire to pursue pro-growth, pro-Main Street policies that will help fuel the economic engine that makes America great: small businesses. These two regulatory rule changes would hasten that pursuit.
Consider what happened under the current regulatory regime when the IRS erroneously confused a New Jersey pizza shop with a trust created by “Larry,” the owner of a small manufacturing business. The IRS suspected the pizzeria of payroll tax violations, but mistakenly sent Larry’s bank a “Notice to Levy” his corporate checking account. Before contacting Larry, the IRS wrongly identified Larry’s trust as the payroll tax violator and froze his manufacturing company’s operating bank account.
Adding insult to Larry’s injury, current federal tax law gives the IRS latitude to hold onto assets even after it knows they have been wrongfully levied, and IRS regulations impose a cumbersome process that requires innocent parties such as Larry’s manufacturing firm to petition the agency to return mistakenly confiscated assets. The complicated, needlessly bureaucratic process puts a significant burden on unsuspecting small businesses at best, but more likely puts their entire operations at risk as they wait for bank accounts to be unfrozen or impounded funds to be returned.
Trump’s IRS can and should rewrite its rules for returning assets to innocent parties. In fact, the IRS already has a model for such a fix — an existing rule allowing for the expedited (10-day) return of tangible business property to business owners who owe back taxes. If the IRS can find a way to return tangible property in 10 days so that tax cheats can resume paying taxes, then it should be able to use a similar process to return wrongfully seized or frozen assets to law-abiding small business owners. After all, it was never Uncle Sam’s property in the first place.
The Trump administration knows that businesses, whether on Main Street or Wall Street, are taxpayers. And just like any other taxpayer, businesses rely on cash and other assets to cover expenses, meet payroll, repay loans, pay the rent, and cover mortgages on their property. The mistaken freezing of assets makes that harder, if not impossible.
So, as Trump looks for new ways to help small businesses and ease the burdens that Big Government continues to lay upon their calloused shoulders, he would do well to improve upon the bipartisan, unanimous reforms of the Taxpayer First Act, and promulgate new rules for the IRS to follow when the IRS errs. Everyone makes mistakes, even federal agencies. Everyone should own up to them, especially the IRS.
The idea applies to other agencies as well. All those that allowed themselves to become politically WEAPONIZED by Obama.
they need to PURGE the place of left-wing activists, who think it’s OK to use the IRS as an attack dog.
If you listen to Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity long enough, you see companies sprouting left and right that purport to help you fight the IRS if you owe them tens of thousands of dollars and help you settle for a few hundred bucks.
They say that it is not a good idea to handle this yourself as the IRS has the means to shut down your business and even garnish your wages.
Companies I hear Rush or Hannity advertise often are — RUSH TAX RESOLUTION ( which they say has an A+ rating with the BBB ) and OPTIMA TAX RELIEF.
How did a country founded on freedom and revolting against unfair taxes allow such a sorry situation to happen?
I underpaid last year to the point that I had to pay a small penalty. So I added $70 and told them to calculate it. I got a letter a week ago that said my taxes were X + $70, but I only paid X and then added my $70 penalty, so my taxes due are “zero”.
My wife was concerned. I told her that, in essence, their message was, “close enough”. :)
They can fix the IRS by putting the fear of God in them by putting Lerner in prison.
How did a country founded on freedom and revolting against unfair taxes allow such a sorry situation to happen?
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It is impossible to stop.
You can write the most ironclad constitution or framing of a government you want, and it is still inevitable.
Governments exist to tax the governed. It’s their singular purpose. It’s their raison d’etre.
All functions and responsibilities of government only serve to legitimize and to further the primary objective of taxation.
Surprised a company named RUSH Tax Resolution can advertise on Rush Limbaugh since it looks like he’s endorsing that product. Or perhaps he is?
Its nonsense to think anyone or any law can prevent abuse and political corruption at US Government agencies like the FBI, IRS or others - who have such immense power over citizens, strong hierarchies, and vast information available to them.
Lord Acton’s statement is as close to a natural law as any in the social sciences: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
Repeal the Income tax (16th Amendment) and abolish the IRS
It’s an utterly anti-American “institution”
Targeting conservatives was not a “mistake”
Start with prosecuting Lois Lerner.
NOPE
Along with the Coup Conspirators, next up are the IRS enforcers
Squeeze THEM until they squeal about who REALLY ordered the hit on the Tea Party people
15+ years ago, I got a couple of letters from the IRS asking me to sign a contract agreeing to stipulate to a certain level of income and a tax amount that would be due. I ignored the first letter, but called the IRS revenue agent after the second one. Asked him a few questions about the basis for the letters and to get back to me. That’s the last I have ever heard from the IRS. That said, I have filed every tax return and paid every penny of tax required by law.
How about a national sales tax so everyone pays something, even the drug dealers who buy an expensive car or boat? Most cash registers collect state and local sales tax so businesses are already set up for it. Things like food and children’s clothes could be exempt.
No more 1040’s and the other aggravating schedules.
A better reform would be to require the IRS to pay back any improperly seized assets with interest. Said interest coming out of the IRS budget for the next fiscal year.
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