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Showing Original Post only (View all)IRS seizes woman's entire savings because she deposits less than $10,000 at a time [View all]
Law Lets I.R.S. Seize Accounts on Suspicion, No Crime RequiredAn Iowa woman named Carole Hinders saw her bank balance go from $33,000 to zero thanks to IRS confiscation. Hinders, who owns a small, cash-only Mexican restaurant, has not been charged with any crime and is not suspected of tax fraud. The IRS says they took her money solely because she deposited too little of it at a time, and the agency claims she did so to avoid the required reporting of any bank transaction over $10,000. She says she just thought it was helpful to save the bank paperwork.
Though the $10,000 rule is ostensibly designed to help catch terrorists and drug dealers, it is far more often used on regular citizens who are unlikely to ever see their money returned. "I don't think [the IRS is] really interested in anything," said a lawyer representing another seizure case. "They just want the money."
To keep her restaurant afloat following the confiscation of her savings, Hinders has had to take out a second mortgage and max out her credit cards. "How can this happen?" she asks. "Who takes your money before they prove that you've done anything wrong with it?"
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/law-lets-irs-seize-accounts-on-suspicion-no-crime-required/ar-BBbbfW3?ocid=mailsignout
http://theweek.com/speedreads/index/270692/speedreads-irs-seizes-womans-entire-savings-because-she-deposits-less-than-10000-at-a-time
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IRS seizes woman's entire savings because she deposits less than $10,000 at a time [View all]
kpete
Oct 2014
OP
What illegal activity? Did you miss the part where she is not being accused of tax fraud? nt
kelly1mm
Oct 2014
#110
This sounds like far more of an 'IRS scandal' than the supposed 'scandal'
Erich Bloodaxe BSN
Oct 2014
#8
Apparently at least $33K. That is what was in the account when it was seized.
stevenleser
Oct 2014
#152
That is part of it. The guidelines for banks say something along the lines that they have to know
stevenleser
Oct 2014
#155
Banks report account totals when Income Taxes are due. What is your point with this woman's
WinkyDink
Oct 2014
#144
Yeah...except you've got the law wrong. Bank records are obtained without warrant
msanthrope
Oct 2014
#103
Again, having heard a former Federal prosecutor talk about abuses of this law...
villager
Oct 2014
#106
Which former federal prosecutor? This has nothing to do with her cash flow...
msanthrope
Oct 2014
#108
She didn't do that. She operated a small business that produced cash deposits every day.
pnwmom
Oct 2014
#27
She didn't say she was doing it to avoid the IRS, and they have no proof that she did.
pnwmom
Oct 2014
#35
What paperwork? How did she even know the paperwork was an IRS issue, and not some
pnwmom
Oct 2014
#40
No, she did not say she did it "to avoid the reporting requirement." She said she was
pnwmom
Oct 2014
#65
No, she didn't say that. The paperwork wasn't necessarily IRS paperwork. You're assuming
pnwmom
Oct 2014
#66
She didn't know it was IRS-related paperwork. Not every bit of paperwork a bank does
pnwmom
Oct 2014
#73
And so now her savings are confiscated and the bank owns her house twice over
Scootaloo
Oct 2014
#101
When you deposit over 10k, you are required to fill out the reporting info to the IRS.
msanthrope
Oct 2014
#49
Yes, YOU know that and you are right. But there is no evidence SHE understood what paperwork
pnwmom
Oct 2014
#56
No, it wasn't. Banks have LOTS of paperwork having nothing to do with reporting requirements.
pnwmom
Oct 2014
#94
The IRS has acknowledged they shouldn't have been doing this and so they're stopping the practice.
pnwmom
Oct 2014
#100
Really? Because I recently deposited a bit more than that (life insurance $$), and no bank official
WinkyDink
Oct 2014
#145
Good for them. Then why, in the OP's story, was such bank reporting not sufficient?
WinkyDink
Oct 2014
#188
Because the depositor was deliberately avoiding the reporting by structuring
msanthrope
Oct 2014
#190
And as soon as it can be discerned that her deposits are not part of an actual crime
Nuclear Unicorn
Oct 2014
#130
yes it's illegal, but it's not about enforcing a progressive tax system. It's about the drug war.
fishwax
Oct 2014
#136
Interesting. Arnolds Park Iowa where all my Hinders cousins live. Do not know her but she could
jwirr
Oct 2014
#52
She's running an all cash biz and making sub 10k deposits to avoid "paperwork"
taught_me_patience
Oct 2014
#68
"Whether or not she did it in this situation I can not say, since the article does not say."
Nuclear Unicorn
Oct 2014
#171
No, I'm actually paying attention to what all these people are asking to do next
jeff47
Oct 2014
#172
So your solution is to keep abusing innocent middle class people as sacrificial lambs
Nuclear Unicorn
Oct 2014
#173
Actually I believe if you deposit in two accounts you still have to fill out the form
Marrah_G
Oct 2014
#184
Big banks get to do whatever they hell they want to do. A small business owner gets her money
liberal_at_heart
Oct 2014
#92
If only the IRS would go after criminal billionaires the way it goes after small business owners.
Rex
Oct 2014
#95
Civil asset forfeiture laws should, at a minimum, only apply to people actually convicted of a crime
Calista241
Oct 2014
#105
R, D, I and Teabaggers have more in common than many realize when it comes to this shit! n/t
RKP5637
Oct 2014
#120
Suspicions arise for more than money laundering. Maybe she was trying to avoid paying taxes.
randome
Oct 2014
#127
Suspicion is not probable cause. Is she living way beyond her apparent means?
yellowcanine
Oct 2014
#129
Then why include a bank at all? It isn't like she'd miss out on any meaningful interest.
WinkyDink
Oct 2014
#146
IDGI! People pay Fed. Income Taxes ONCE A YEAR, not with every bank deposit! So HOW can it be
WinkyDink
Oct 2014
#148
No, but the violation was designed to make the IRS look abusive, a right-wing strategy.
Scuba
Oct 2014
#178
Please explain how seizing this woman's assets "was designed to keep corporations ....
Scuba
Oct 2014
#186
This is nothing less than strong-arm robbery by the government. This law is an ass.
Comrade Grumpy
Oct 2014
#163