Judge OKs decision to sell widow's home over $6.30 debt

Fox News ^ | 04-28-2014 | Associated Press

[PaulCruz2016]

BEAVER, Pa. – A widow was given ample notice before her $280,000 house was sold at a tax auction three years ago over $6.30 in unpaid interest, a Pennsylvania judge has ruled.

The decision last week turned down Eileen Battisti's request to reverse the September 2011 sale of her home outside Aliquippa in western Pennsylvania.

"I paid everything, and didn't know about the $6.30," Battisti said. "For the house to be sold just because of $6.30 is crazy."

[Talisker]

My Brother-in-Law was a manager for the IRS. I remember him telling me that if an amount owed was less than $10.00 it would simply be written off as not worth fooling with.

And you believed him?

Think about what you just said - really think about it.

[eyeamok]

Which is why there should be NO TAX on Property that is PAID FOR.

[DoughtyOne]

That gets my vote. How much more clear could it be, that this is terribly wrong?

Some possession of hers could have been taken and auctioned? Nope, they just went for the full property.

This is pure evil in my mind.

Someone should get the full volume on this story, and mail it to the mothers of every government official that was involved in this, just before next mothers day.

And their family member’s full complicity should be documented.

[DoughtyOne]

You may be right on that. I’ve not dealt with that sort of thing before, so it’s new to me.

I just think it’s really rotten to try to take an old woman’s home. If it’s a lot of money, then I suppose there is reason for it, and I would have to accept some things I wouldn’t want to.

But for $6 and change... come one. This is evil.

I appreciate the mention. Perhaps it will click with someone else and foster a great idea.

[Talisker]

I worked for the IRS. In 1974 I was ordered to seize an individual's automobile to pay $0.35 (that's right, 35 cents) of unpaid telephone excise tax because the refusal to pay was a protest against the Vietnam war. Normally the IRS doesn't get involved with telephone excise taxs, but since it was a federal tax, and there were political ramifications all bets were off.

And so you took someone's car over 35 cents.

But in doing so, you obeyed your orders, right?

Where have I heard that before?

And of course, you invoked your Title 26 enforcement authority to carry out those orders. It's not like you operated on your own - right? Which means you made sure that this person was 1) An officer or employee of a listed type of corporation; AND 2) Under a duty to perform an act; AND 3) In respect of said act, a violation occured, as repeated verbatim in §§ 6671 (b), 7343 and 6332 (f), which are the ONLY three three enforcement authorization statutes in Title 26. But of course you knew that, because you were a Title 26 enforcement officer.

Oh wait a minute, you were following orders, which means that you didn't needs any silly statutory authorization.

Right?

[editor-surveyor]

Or if he just didn’t make it home one day...

Shit happens.

[SargeK]

Where the sheriff who will be conducting the sale was arrested himself for threatening to cut the arms off of his own campaign aide and pulling a gun on a reporter.

And he’s still in office. Guess the party?

Solid D county too, BTW.

[SargeK]

How about personal service by an officer of the court?

Of course, the democrat sheriff of Beaver County is under arrest for threatening to cut off the hands of his own campaign volunteer and pulling a gun on a reporter, yet he remains in office.

That whole courthouse should be shoved into a ditch and buried like any other piece of sh*t. Mind boggling corruption.

[zeugma]

I would not shed a tear if they were all publicly hanged.

Public hangings are what it's going to take to reign in the out of control "government".

[zeugma]

In 1974 I was ordered to seize an individual's automobile to pay $0.35 (that's right, 35 cents) of unpaid telephone excise tax because the refusal to pay was a protest against the Vietnam war. Normally the IRS doesn't get involved with telephone excise taxs, but since it was a federal tax, and there were political ramifications all bets were off.

Did you do it?

[usconservative]

There’s a judge that needs to be taken out to the nearest oak tree and strung up by his neck.

[Verginius Rufus]

Another example of why people tend to hate lawyers?

I recall a story from maybe 2 or 3 years ago of an elderly man in a small town in Michigan who tried to pay his heating bill but they rejected the payment because of some trivial mistake and cut off his heat during a bitterly cold spell. He froze to death in his own house.

[Chode]

Unintended Consequences...

[Auntie Dem]

“The best way to get rid of a bad law is to enforce it strictly” A. Lincoln

Your tax protest arguments fall flat everywhere they’re tried, they don’t work and anyone who relies on them deserves what they get.

Of course I seized his car. He was a long-haired, dope-smoking, FM type. At least 40 years ago leftists were getting what they deserved. Obviously won’t happen now. Look at it this way, I gave the guy a chance to put his money where his mouth was. Something liberals never have to do.

I told managers “NO” many times when I was ordered to do something illegal (IRS managers think nothing is illegal for them). Seizing property for unpaid legally assessed taxes is legal—even today. Seizing a residence based on an erroneous assessment is not. After a while I got tired of being the only Officer complying with the law.

[MrB]

Here’s to betting some democrat politician stands to make a lot of money over the sale of this property.

[Talisker]

“The best way to get rid of a bad law is to enforce it strictly” A. Lincoln

Your tax protest arguments fall flat everywhere they’re tried, they don’t work and anyone who relies on them deserves what they get.

Of course I seized his car. He was a long-haired, dope-smoking, FM type. At least 40 years ago leftists were getting what they deserved. Obviously won’t happen now. Look at it this way, I gave the guy a chance to put his money where his mouth was. Something liberals never have to do.

I told managers “NO” many times when I was ordered to do something illegal (IRS managers think nothing is illegal for them). Seizing property for unpaid legally assessed taxes is legal—even today. Seizing a residence based on an erroneous assessment is not. After a while I got tired of being the only Officer complying with the law.

Long haired and dope smoking? Well that's certainly enough of a reason to go after someone. Thanks for clarifying the assement procedures of federal agents. After all, we wouldn't ant you to go after someone in a buisiness suit and short hair, that would be unthinkable.

Oh and by the way, nobody has "tried" using §§ 6671 (b), 7343 and 6332 (f) and lost. What happens if you invoke these statutes is that your case is dismissed, and no record is kept of it. Because they show that the law simply does not apply to a person not so listed.

And this is not a "tax protest" argument, so you can keep your nasty little knee-jerk villification terms of art to yourself, thank you very much. And if you mean that people deserve to get the full meaning of the law, then we agree. Because these statutes are not the general definition found in § 7701 (a) (1).

They are the specific applications of the meaning of that general definition, for the enforcement authority of Title 26. Is that okay with you?

And they have not been used as an "argument" on the web - anywhere. Except, of course, where I pointed them out in One Stone, Two Powers: How Chief Justice Roberts Saved America. If you have a problem with the actual words found in the actual laws cited by the Chief Justice, you can always take it up with him. I'm sure he'll be interested in your attitude.

As a CPA, and as a (former, or current?) IRS agent, I presume you are familiar with Title 26? Because §§ 6671 (b), 7343 and 6332 (f) are awfully specific - and awfully limiting.

And you wouldn't want to go around breaking the law.

Right?

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

Of course I seized his car. He was a long-haired, dope-smoking, FM type. At least 40 years ago leftists were getting what they deserved.

And why is Lois Lerner in trouble again?

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

A friend of mine’s father was notorious in Chicago 30 years ago or so for buying up slum properties at tax sales. Then he’d collect rents, not spend a dime maintaining the buildings, and when the citations built up, he’d donate the building to some small black church, taking a big tax deduction for his “charity.” A real scumbag.

[Auntie Dem]

Oh and by the way, nobody has "tried" using §§ 6671 (b), 7343 and 6332 (f) and lost. What happens if you invoke these statutes is that your case is dismissed, and no record is kept of it. Because they show that the law simply does not apply to a person not so listed.

If this is an example of your logic and arguments it's no wonder you're so screwed up.

IRC 6671 defines which "persons" are subject to the penalty imposed under 6672 for failure to pay taxes withheld from others. It is not a general definition of who is defined as a person for the purposes of being subject to income taxes in general. I frequently used Secs 6671 and 6672 in my former job. My job was CIVIL enforcement, not criminal. I was successful in applying the term "person" as defined in 6671 to a bank and its employees who directed corporate officers not to pay their federal payroll taxes in preference to payments on the corporation's outstanding loans at that bank.

You ARE making the same arguments tax protestors have unsuccessfully used for years to evade payment of income taxes.

I also used Sec 6332 to force banks to pay taxes subject to a Notice of Levy I served, when they offset those funds to loans owed by the delinquent taxpayer. The context which you attempt to apply to Secs 6671, 7343 and 6332 simply does not apply to the circumstances I mentioned in my earlier post.

If you are so confident your arguments are sound I encourage you to cite them when you deliberately fail to file a tax return or deliberately fail to pay the tax legally due thereon. Make sure you tell your local newspaper and TV station to make your case known to the IRS.