IRS to return $100,000 wrongfully seized from small business owner

    Back in October of last year America’s Watchtower reported on the story that the IRS was in the process of seizing  the bank accounts of some small business owners even though they were never charged with committing any crime. The IRS began targeting small business owners who made multiple deposits of under $10,000 each and the agency justified it by using a law which prohibits “structured” deposits. This law was supposed to be used to thwart drug dealers and gun traffickers but these were legitimate businesses. A clear abuse of power in my opinion.

  Here is one example:

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 checking account, 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.

  And here is another:

Mr. Sowers is a dairy farmer who makes quite a bit of his money from participating in farmer’s markets. Because of the business he is in he frequently deposits cash into his bank account on a weekly basis.

 According to Randy Sowers his wife went into the bank one Monday with $12,000 and wanted to deposit it but the bank teller asked her to make the deposits less than $10,000 to save the bank paperwork. That is when all hell broke loose.

  Because the Sowers’ followed the bank’s advice they were making weekly “structured” deposits of under $10,000 and they were visited by the IRS. Eventually the criminal agency seized $62,000 of their money. They eventually settled with the IRS for just under $30,000 but that means the IRS is still in possession of $32,000 which rightfully belongs to the Sowers family.

  A third such case is the story of Lyndon McLellan. He owns a convenience store and because he made what the IRS deemed to be “structured” deposits the criminal agency stole $107,702.66 of his hard-earned money. But this story has a happy ending: the IRS is going to give him his money back.

“It’s a relief to know that you’re getting something back that’s yours to start with,” McLellan told The Daily Signal. “I wanted [the government] to do what was right, and I felt what was right was for me to get my money back.”

“We’re thrilled that the government has recognized that what they were doing to Lyndon was wrong and that they’ve dropped the attempt to forfeit Lyndon’s money,” Robert Johnson, a lawyer at the Institute for Justice who represents McLellan, told The Daily Signal. “This case was a mistake and unconstitutional from the start, and we’re just glad the government has recognized that.”

  However, the IRS stole this money almost one year ago and it could be months before the criminal agency makes the payment so it would seem to me Lyndon McLellan is also due the interest he lost while his money was in the hands of this corrupt agency.

Malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium