April 7, 2017

IRS Takes Advantage of Forfeiture Law

Millions seized from individuals who were innocent of any criminal activity.

When a law designed to catch criminals instead hurts law-abiding citizens, it needs to be repealed or amended. The rule in question is designed to prevent “structuring” — the practice of making multiple bank deposits of just under $10,000 in order to avoid having to file a federal report for a large deposit. A recent report from the Treasury Department concluded, “When seizure and administrative forfeitures do not ultimately advance an investigation or prosecution, law enforcement creates the appearance, and risk the reality, that it is more interested in seizing and forfeiting cash than advancing an investigation or prosecution.”

The IRS responded to the report by stating that it had in recent years implemented new policies to address some of the issues raised regarding uninvestigated seizures, and that it was “proactive in revising the way in which structuring statutes are enforced to seek uniformity across the country.” That may be so, but how can this be publicly verified when the IRS continues to refuse to comply with Freedom of Information Act requests for records on seizures made for violating the structuring rule?

As the Washington Post reports, “While structuring is technically a crime, it’s something of a secondary one. The reporting requirements were enacted to detect serious criminal activity, such as drug dealing and terrorism. They ‘were not put in place just so that the Government could enforce the reporting requirements,’ as the IG’s report puts it. But according to the report, that’s exactly what happened at the IRS in recent years. The IRS pursued hundreds of cases from 2012 to 2015 on suspicion of structuring, but with no indications of connections to any criminal activity. Simply depositing cash in sums of less than $10,000 was all that it took to arouse agents’ suspicions, leading to the eventual seizure and forfeiture of millions of dollars in cash from people not otherwise suspected of criminal activity.”

In fact, the inspector general reviewed a random sampling of 278 IRS forfeitures cases from 2012 to 2015 in which structuring was the reason for the “seizure.” In 91% of those cases, the money seized by the IRS from individuals or businesses had been legally obtained. In other words, no criminal activity had occurred justifying the IRS action other than a failure to comply with the structuring rule. This seems to be a case of the IRS taking advantage of an ill-conceived law in order to enact penalties upon unsuspecting and non-criminal individuals.

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.