WashPost: Treasury seizing tax refunds over taxpayer's parent's debts

[devil21]

This is not a good sign.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...ac8eae-bf4d-11e3-bcec-b71ee10e9bc3_story.html

Now, Social Security claims it overpaid someone in the Grice family — it’s not sure who — in 1977. After 37 years of silence, four years after Sadie Grice died, the government is coming after her daughter. Why the feds chose to take Mary’s money, rather than her surviving siblings’, is a mystery.

Across the nation, hundreds of thousands of taxpayers who are expecting refunds this month are instead getting letters like the one Grice got, informing them that because of a debt they never knew about — often a debt incurred by their parents — the government has confiscated their check.

more at link

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Also from article:

The aggressive effort to collect old debts started three years ago — the result of a single sentence tucked into the farm bill lifting the 10-year statute of limitations on old debts to Uncle Sam.

Changing the rules in the middle of the game by retroactively making debts previously uncollectable due to SOL fair game again.

 

[tod evans]

Interesting..........1977 eh?

I was in the USN in '77, Elvis died that year...

Gotta wonder who at the IRS has gone back through the paper records with a fine enough comb to discover a discrepancy?

Not even addressing the issue of holding the child accountable for the parents...

 

[anaconda]

Interesting..........1977 eh?

I was in the USN in '77, Elvis died that year...

Gotta wonder who at the IRS has gone back through the paper records with a fine enough comb to discover a discrepancy?

Not even addressing the issue of holding the child accountable for the parents...

I thought even the IRS observed a statute of limitations. I thought it was, like, 10 years or something.

 

[tod evans]

I thought even the IRS observed a statute of limitations. I thought it was, like, 10 years or something.

I wouldn't have any idea...

However the sitting AG does whateverinthehell he wants....

 

[dannno]

I thought even the IRS observed a statute of limitations. I thought it was, like, 10 years or something.

You can read in the OP that The Farm Bill changed the statute of limitations, duh, it's called "The Farm Bill" you should know that it changed the statute of limitations on how far back the government can collect debt.

 

[NorthCarolinaLiberty]

The rules only apply to the maggot public. The government follows their own brand of anarchy.

The irony gets thicker each year.

 

[Warrior_of_Freedom]

someone pissed that IRS agent off. I don't see how they even have the manpower to investigate everything occurring in the present, let alone decades ago.

 

[angelatc]

Grice found a lawyer willing to take her case without charge. Vogel is exercised about the constitutional violations he sees in the retroactive lifting of the 10-year limit on debt collection. “Can the government really bring back to life a case that was long dead?” the lawyer asked. “Can it really be right to seize a child’s money to satisfy a parent’s debt?”

Good!

In Glenarm, Ill., Brenda and Mike Samonds have spent the past year trying to figure out how to get back the $189.10 tax refund the government seized, claiming that Mike’s mother, who died 33 years ago, had been overpaid on survivor’s benefits after Mike’s father died in 1969.

Unfreaking real.

 

[NorthCarolinaLiberty]

Just another reason why you should never let the government hold your money and issue it back to you in the form a "tax refund." Another reason I always use a credit card and won't use a debit card.

Never let a fucking cocksucker hold your money.

 

[MelissaWV]

someone pissed that IRS agent off. I don't see how they even have the manpower to investigate everything occurring in the present, let alone decades ago.

If I were doing this at work, I would loosely follow this process:

* Run a report for all write-offs within a given range. Let's say write-offs of over $1000.
* Print that report, including the account's name, SSN, DOB, and any reason code as to why it was written off.
* Run a pretty easy cross-reference report looking for names and SSNs of people associated with the aforementioned debt (someone who filled out a form for mom, or was power of attorney, or was listed as a point of contact, etc.)

Now you have a smaller subset which compares against every incoming refund request automatically. With the appropriate databases, and even with Government workers, this would not take long to set up and no one is about to verify the veracity of these claims. They were likely smaller debts written off years ago due to the person dying or statute of limitations, but now they are back in play.

The takeaway from all of this? If you're filing/paying taxes, at the very least do not end up with a refund. You have to ask for that money back, and if there is any fine, loan, or other debt that they can associate with you, you're not getting it back.

 

[NorthCarolinaLiberty]

someone pissed that IRS agent off.

Probably. Either that, or some bureaucrat prick starting a concerted effort to get another feather in his cap.

 

[euphemia]

i don't see why a private citizen has to pay for a bookkeeping error by the federal government on someone else's account. That's just dumb. Pay it backwards is their rule, I guess.

 

[satchelmcqueen]

fucking bullshit

 

[NorthCarolinaLiberty]

I'd say expect a whole lot more of this as our country continues its 50+ year decline. The government and it's supporting minions can no longer even present an argument as to why this is justified. The government itself has degenerated into its own brand of anarchy.

The money is gone and they are coming for yours. Don't give it up and they will come for you. There is really only one inevitable solution when all form and reason go out the window.

 

[Anti Federalist]

This.

We are all...(insert martyr's name here)

I'd say expect a whole lot more of this as our country continues its 50+ year decline. The government and it's supporting minions can no longer even present an argument as to why this is justified. The government itself has degenerated into its own brand of anarchy.

The money is gone and they are coming for yours. Don't give it up and they will come for you. There is really only one inevitable solution when all form and reason go out the window.

 

[oyarde]

Interesting..........1977 eh?

I was in the USN in '77, Elvis died that year...

Gotta wonder who at the IRS has gone back through the paper records with a fine enough comb to discover a discrepancy?

Not even addressing the issue of holding the child accountable for the parents...

Parents did not owe , they( govt) issued to the dead . That is the responsibility of the thief govt, not someone else who is stolen from , unless there is legitimate fraud , which there is not , or they would be charged . It is just stealing . This cannot be tolerated by those who have been stolen from . They must act .Tolerance will encourage more thieving , lowlife aggression from these lowlifes , they must be stomped

 

[oyarde]

Interesting..........1977 eh?

I was in the USN in '77, Elvis died that year...

Gotta wonder who at the IRS has gone back through the paper records with a fine enough comb to discover a discrepancy?

Not even addressing the issue of holding the child accountable for the parents...

Yes , Elvis is dead , but the evil , vampire , godless , govt is larger, it has no limit to blood lust , greed .....

 

[devil21]

Those huge unfunded liabilities we've been talking about? They're starting to become funded....some by losing refunds and others by losing cattle and land.

 

[oyarde]

Those huge unfunded liabilities we've been talking about? They're starting to become funded....some by losing refunds and others by losing cattle and land.

Oh , yes , they are on the game now to be sure , and it will only increase.

 

[jbauer]

I'm lost. It was their parents debt. If the estate was closed and assuming their estate went through probate there should be nothing that could be done. This is flat out theft. There is no better term for it. Theft.