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Last week, the Senate very quietly passed the Taxpayer First Act, H.R. 3151. The bill, which now heads to President Donald Trump’s desk for his signature, seeks to improve customer service and better assist taxpayer appeals. The bill included other provisions, however, that seek to rein in the Internal Revenue Services abuse of civil asset forfeiture laws.
On behalf of our activist community, I urge you to contact your senators and urge them to vote NO on S.J.Res. 64, the disapproval resolution under the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to nullify the Department of the Treasury’s policy to end the collection of donor information to certain 501(c) nonprofit organizations. S.J.Res. 64 would weaken free speech protections and put donor privacy at risk.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has a long, well-documented history of abusing federal forfeiture laws. They seize assets from innocent Americans on the mere suspicion of malfeasance. If the IRS believes a citizen is structuring deposits to avoid reporting requirements, the agency can seize your money. Administrative reforms were made in 2015 to roll back some abuses, but there is still much work to be done.
Americans often hear from radical leftists that “the rich need to pay their fair share” of income taxes. The rhetoric is hard to avoid. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) based partly based his failed 2016 presidential campaign on soaking the wealthy in taxes, and House and Senate Democrats railed against the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, H.R. 1, because it lowered tax rates across the board, including on higher-income earners.
Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee want to know why the Department of Justice (DOJ) has denied petitions by Americans whose money was seized by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The seized money was subject to federal civil asset forfeiture hearings in which the individual from whom the money was taken had to prove that it wasn’t connected to any wrongdoing.
On behalf of FreedomWorks’ activist community, I urge you to contact your representative and ask him or her to support the Preserving Taxpayers’ Rights Act, H.R. 3220, introduced by Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.). The bill would bring necessary reforms to allow taxpayers to resolve tax disputes with the IRS without being forced to litigate in court which is inefficient, expensive, and time consuming for taxpayers, the IRS, and the courts.
The Republican leadership in Congress, such as it is, appears to be more afraid of what the liberal Washington Post editorial and op-ed pages will say about them if they impeach IRS Commissioner John Koskinen than they are of allowing another of Congress’ constitutional prerogatives — in this case, checks and balances on executive-branch impropriety — to be emasculated.
Ahead of a scheduled vote in the House of Representatives on the Clyde-Hirsch-Sowers RESPECT Act (H.R. 5523), which addresses the Internal Revenue Service’s abuse of federal civil asset forfeiture laws, FreedomWorks CEO Adam Brandon commented:
Following the introduction of a privileged resolution for the House to consider the removal of the commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service from office, FreedomWorks CEO Adam Brandon commented: