IRS Forced to Apologize for Stealing Money from Innocent People and Businesses

by Kenneth Schortgen Jr.

Like the War on Terror which has been used to spawn the Patriot Act and NDAA to gave carte blanche powers to un-elected officials and bureaucratic agencies, so too has the War on Drugs changed the way the government and police deal with the citizenry.  And now, shortly after the Department of Justice ended the practice of Civil Forfeiture without accusation of a crime, the IRS on Feb. 12 is publicly apologizing to the people for their practice of confiscating money and businesses without proof of a crime, simply because someone made a deposit of less than $10,000 to banks as part of their normal legitimate business practices.

Pressured by Congress, the IRS said Wednesday it is changing its policies and apologizing for seizing banks accounts from otherwise law-abiding business owners simply because they structured bank transactions to avoid federal reporting requirements.

IRS Commissioner John Koskinen told Congress that the IRS is changing policies to prevent the seizures, as long as the money came from legal means.

“To anyone who is not treated fairly under the code, I apologize,” Koskinen told the House Ways and Means oversight subcommittee. “Taxpayers have to be comfortable that they will be treated fairly.” – Yahoo News

The $10,000 reporting rule that the IRS uses to confiscate and seize money without a warrant stems from a law which Congress passed intended to root out money launderers, drug cartels, and terrorist organizations. However, as with most government agencies, they assume everyone is automatically guilty and rarely follow through with an honest investigation to determine the circumstances behind alleged behavior, as in the case of one business owner who had to carry and deposit less then $10,000 due to requirements tied to their insurance policies.

Since the government began creating ideological conflicts that were meant to keep the country in perpetual war and the people as enemies of the state where their guilt is automatically assumed, billions of dollars have been seized illegally by the government, either through the actions of the Internal Revenues Service or by municipal agents under Civil Forfeiture.  And perhaps with Congress and the White House finally stepping in over the past 30 days to halt these egregious acts of tyranny, people can feel a bit more safer when carrying money to and from banks, or even when traveling with extra cash from one place to another.

Kenneth Schortgen Jr. is a writer for Secretsofthefed.com, Examiner.com, and hosts the popular web blog, The Daily Economist. Ken can also be heard Friday evenings giving an weekly economic report on the Angel Clark radio show.