Posted on 10/25/2014 3:35:38 PM PDT by Libloather
ARNOLDS PARK, Iowa — For almost 40 years, Carole Hinders has dished out Mexican specialties at her modest cash-only restaurant. For just as long, she deposited the earnings at a small bank branch a block away — until last year, when two tax agents knocked on her door and informed her that they had seized her funds, almost $33,000.
The Internal Revenue Service agents did not accuse Ms. Hinders of money laundering or cheating on her taxes — in fact, she has not been charged with any crime. Instead, the money was seized solely because she had deposited less than $10,000 at a time, which they viewed as an attempt to avoid triggering a required government report.
“How can this happen?” Ms. Hinders said in a recent interview. “Who takes your money before they prove that you’ve done anything wrong with it?”
The federal government does.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Probably the most perceptive comment on the thread. They want to be able to trace everything. They'd do away with cash completely if they could.
Hasn't been, for many decades.
Just ask yourself how much you will tolerate.
Very perceptive on tbw2’s part. Never occurred to me. Of course. This is the way to kill cash without laws.
The only real reform affecting ordinary folk was a bill introduced by a Democrat, the famous Jim Traficant. The bill required the IRS to get a court order before they could seize your assets for back taxes. They hounded him out of office for it, then got it repealed as part of the USA Patriot act.
I don't think that banks are allowed to tell you whether or not they've filed a SAR on you. And there are protections for the bank. Here's an old PDF on the subject: http://www.fincen.gov/statutes_regs/guidance/pdf/advis35.pdf
If you see cash only businesses see all their cash seized, it pushes people into accepting debit or credit much more. Cash only businesses that then operate under the radar must then either NEVER deposit cash, putting them at risk of seizure by cops who see the cash when stopping them (same civil forfeiture abuse Institute for Justice is fighting) or be so small that it never garners attention, like the guy who sells ice cream from a push cart and uses the money to pay for groceries that week.
Asset forfeiture laws allow us to take the ill-gotten gains of drug kingpins and use them to put more cops on the streets and more prosecutors in court.
In the last 5 years alone, the Justice Department shared over half a billion dollars in forfeited assets with State and local law enforcement.
http://bushlibrary.tamu.edu/research/public_papers.php?id=2764&year=1991&month=3
That sounds lucrative. How many SARs did that generate against the DoJ?
> The Internal Revenue Service agents did not accuse Ms. Hinders of money laundering or cheating on her taxes — in fact, she has not been charged with any crime. Instead, the money was seized solely because she had deposited less than $10,000 at a time, which they viewed as an attempt to avoid triggering a required government report.
Meanwhile, the murderer of Mary Jo Kopechne was given Christian burial. It’s not who pays the bills, it’s whose bills are getting paid.
You’ve missed the point of the article. There’s no trial of any kind. Your money is simply taken from your bank account, now try to get it back.
Ya know, one of these days these bastards are going to push someone just a little too far.
And when they do, they will get what they deserve.
Nothing but petty tyrants. I hope they all get Ebola.
Many should be aware that commercial insurance policies limit the coverage on ‘cash-on-hand’ and deposits.
This isn’t the first time this has happened and approaching critical mass for people to do something about this confiscation mentality of various government agencies in an environment where “they can do no wrong” (the only remedy is to hire a lawyer at great expense and take the government to court, being that the Justice Department is totally corrupt and respective IGs have been neutered to the point of being lapdogs...)...
I would vote for anyone who would do this, regardless of party. (Of course the dems/liberals never would support it.) The IRS is one of the most corrupt parts of our government and a great place to start major housecleaning. By eliminating it.
I seriously dislike the idea of government intrusion into my life. So if I had $10,000.01 in cash to deposit, I’d be inclined to make 2 deposits. These laws were supposedly created to identify drug dealers, but they are being used to harass and threaten honest citizens. I’d like to see the statistics on how many drug dealers are caught this way. I’m betting not enough to justify this level of harassment.
In most places the cops know exactly who the drug dealers are, but they do not go after them because it is dangerous and a lot of work. Instead, they raise revenue by writing traffic tickets on decent hard-working people who are no threat.
I have no knowledge of this particular case, but I’d bet if this woman were really dangerous, they would have either left her alone or sent a SWAT team.
Then where do you keep it?
“Stuff like this shows us, this country is long gone.”
No, it shows us that conservatives don’t get off their fat butts and elect 2nd Amendment, Constitutional sheriffs to stick guns in the faces of IRS fascist goons who steal money from Americans.
One obvious reason would be that your business makes less than 10,000 per day. I would expect that to be quite common with a small business.
The first one started with tar, feathers and a rail. We’re past that point now .
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