Small businesses are often considered the lifeblood of the economy, and the government has created many programs that have helped to support small businesses so that they can remain profitable for many years to come. One program that has been instituted, however, has had the opposite effect: civil forfeiture laws.
These laws give the IRS and other government entities the ability to seize assets from small business owners and other citizens without ever charging them with a crime. One small business owner in North Carolina has been fighting for some time now after the IRS took over $100,000 from his company bank account without ever charging him with a crime. The practice is undeniably unfair, and the law reads as though it needs to be translated by All Language Alliance.
While this is most unfortunate, the IRS was able to do so because the small business made deposits to the bank account that were always less than $10,000. This advice was given to him by a bank employee, as a teller informed him it would result in less paperwork for him and the bank. There was certainly less paperwork at the time, but an awareness of the provision that enabled the IRS to seize such a large amount of his company’s profits may have prevented the whole scenario from ever occurring.