Social Security, Treasury target taxpayers for their parents’ decades-old debts

This is going to make a lot of you angry if you have not been made aware of this previously. I personally, am OUTRAGED!

A few weeks ago, with no notice, the U.S. government intercepted Mary Grice’s tax refunds from both the IRS and the state of Maryland. Grice had no idea that Uncle Sam had seized her money until some days later, when she got a letter saying that her refund had gone to satisfy an old debt to the government — a very old debt.

When Grice was 4, back in 1960, her father died, leaving her mother with five children to raise. Until the kids turned 18, Sadie Grice got survivor benefits from Social Security to help feed and clothe them.

Wait!! What??

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.

The Treasury Department has intercepted $1.9 billion in tax refunds already this year — $75 million of that on debts delinquent for more than 10 years, said Jeffrey Schramek, assistant commissioner of the department’s debt management service.

Are you kidding me? We failed miserably as a nation by not electing someone who would have abolished the IRS (cough, Ron Paul, cough).

Source

reply to post by freakjive


Wow. Only in Amerika. I can see a lawsuit coming over that one and perhaps a theft charge. I would love to hear how this one plays out.

Generational taxes...


Ultimate form of taxation with out representation?

Taxed for the Dead?

WTF...

eta:

Had to comment on this.

No one seems eager to take credit for reopening all these long-closed cases. A Social Security spokeswoman says the agency didn’t seek the change; ask Treasury. Treasury says it wasn’t us; try Congress. Congressional staffers say the request probably came from the bureaucracy.

FROM THE BUREAUCRACY?

Thats all of them, and none of them can step up and take responsibility.

reply to post by freakjive


Ron Paul couldn't have line item vetoed the 16th Amendment.
Too many million/billionaires keep it all going just like they want it and always will.

This part makes my blood boil:

No one seems eager to take credit for reopening all these long-closed cases. A Social Security spokeswoman says the agency didn’t seek the change; ask Treasury. Treasury says it wasn’t us; try Congress. Congressional staffers say the request probably came from the bureaucracy.

The only explanation the government provides for suddenly going after decades-old debts comes from Social Security spokeswoman Dorothy Clark: “We have an obligation to current and future Social Security beneficiaries to attempt to recoup money that people received when it was not due.”

Of course no one is going to take credit for this. The government is stealing people's refunds under shaky premises due to a small line added to the farm bill, which is OBVIOUSLY going to be unpopular, therefore costing politicians their jobs if they are found to be associated with this. And of course this is an election year, so everyone will dance around taking blame and nothing will get done. In the end the American people will lose again.

Cynic
reply to post by freakjive

 

Wow. Only in Amerika. I can see a lawsuit coming over that one and perhaps a theft charge. I would love to hear how this one plays out.

If you read the whole article, the person who had her refund stolen IS suing the government. She found a lawyer who is taking up the case at no cost to her.

Aron Russo (spelling?) talked about something similar. He said they changed laws, then back dated those laws, then hit him with tax for money earnt many years earlier!

They could do this all the way back to....?

I wonder how much tax Jesus will owe?

The Treasury Department has intercepted $1.9 billion in tax refunds already this year — $75 million of that on debts delinquent for more than 10 years, said Jeffrey Schramek, assistant commissioner of the department’s debt management service.

No one seems eager to take credit for reopening all these long-closed cases. A Social Security spokeswoman says the agency didn’t seek the change; ask Treasury. Treasury says it wasn’t us; try Congress. Congressional staffers say the request probably came from the bureaucracy.

Since the drive to collect on very old debts began in 2011, the Treasury Department has collected $424 million in debts that were more than 10 years old. Those debts were owed to many federal agencies, but the one that has many Americans howling this tax season is the Social Security Administration, which has found 400,000 taxpayers who collectively owe $714 million on debts more than 10 years old. The agency expects to have begun proceedings against all of those people by this summer.

Taxed while we are alive.

Taxed when we die.

Taxed gets passed on to someone else.

The depths of government GREED has no limits.

And they are the biggest blowers of our money.

What a joke.

TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION.

and we clearly don't have representation in DC.

There are only two things they give a damn about:

Our money.
Our votes.

Withhold either of those, and see how long they 'care' about you.

reply to post by Krazysh0t


Thanks, I missed the fact she is suing, good for her!
While waiting for her win, she should charge the pr*cks with theft.

if she was 4 in 60 so in 77 she was what 21?

so when the debt of her parents occurred, she was legally an adult free and clear of her parents.


So, a child, after leaving their parents, can still be held for a tax debt their parents had after that point...

Not like if it was before would of been any different, this whole thing is f-ed anyway you look at it.


Lets see, so you can be born into debt in America, or have it applied to you due to the sins of your parents...

I know I've seen this before... But I believe there was some bankruptcy they pinned it all on one person...

Maybe we should do the same, Blame the gov, and nail it to a cross.

reply to post by Krazysh0t

The government is stealing people's refunds

That is what makes my blood boil on top of going after people like in the op.

If people are getting refunds. They are over paying the feds.

What many people are doing is giving an interest free loan to those people in DC.

All anyone has to do is throw that amount in a savings account, or stuff it under their matress.

Or use the 'extra' cash to live on.

The last thing people need to be doing is paying the US government more than they have to.

reply to post by freakjive


There is no shortage of length of the Octopuses(IRS) tentacles!

Not to mention no honor left in the men and women whom were elected as our "Representative Government"!

Vampires? Parasites? Not sure what to call em anymore....

reply to post by Cynic


No problem. Though I'm not sure how far this lawsuit will travel. In all probability it'll probably be squashed and forgotten by some corrupt judicial official. Gotta love bureaucracy, so convoluted that even trying to fight the system results in you tired and wasted with nothing getting done.

What a creative bunch of weasels you have there in Amerika!
Please keep them, we have enough of these little b@stards at CRA, they don't need more ideas........

neo96

If people are getting refunds. They are over paying the feds.

What many people are doing is giving an interest free loan to those people in DC.

This, so much this...


as an example, My brother wasn't getting his state refund.

Couldn't figure out why,

Called up, weeks, nothing.

Guess what, apparently there was a problem due to the tax penalty of ACA...

(funny once he signed up he got his refund almost immediately after...)

Went off on him, that he should always claim the maximum exemptions, and discipline himself to pay it out of pocket at the end of the year.

ITs not getting anything back, its throwing you change after they decide how much they raped you.

reply to post by Krazysh0t


She should make a citizen's arrest of the local manager of the IRS for theft.
That would make a better headline in the national news, even if it serves only to bring attention to this draconian piece of legislation. Then watch the SHTF

So if no one is claiming that they are the one's calling for her money, shouldn't she get it back? Since, you know, it's rightfully hers.

"No one" can't take money from someone.

There's another country that uses government to attack children and relatives for the actions or alleged actions of individuals.

North Korea.

The best part is that the gov is the one who did wrong. They overpaid. So you're punished.

Who else can punish somebody else for their own mistake?

Hard to believe no one knew what was snuck in to that farm bill.....................

The IRS knew.

reply to post by freakjive


Lol @ Ron Paul. Ron Paul, like a lot of contemporary "Libertarians," has been fond in the past of stating how much influence Ayn Rand's novels had over him. He's what you might call an Objectivist. Objectivism was the pseduo-philosophy born of the writings of Ayn Rand, sociopath and all around meh person.

It may interest you to know that Objectivism was also the core inspiration for the Satanic Bible written by Anton LaVey, founder of the Church of Satan.

So in addition to being somewhat insane and having established links to "white power" groups, Mr. Paul's ideology, like most of his ilk, is largely informed by none other than a person who is arguably the mother of modern Satanism.

reply to post by benrl


Don't hate the player, hate the game!
2nd