October 27, 2014 – As if dealing with the IRS wasn’t bad enough, Forbes is reporting on a new wrinkle. It seems that when the IRS has suspicion that a bank account might contain illicit loot – suspicion, mind you, not proof – it can just empty than bank account and worry about things like criminal intent and due process later. Isn’t civil forfeiture grand?

From the article:



Of the 639 seizures in 2012, only twenty percent of these seizures turned out to involve cases where criminal charges were ever pursued.

Think about that— a full eighty percent of the bank accounts emptied by the IRS in 2012 involved completely innocent people and businesses.

How is that not a criminal enterprise?

Of course, when contacted by those who had experienced this theft at the hands of the IRS, the tax collection agency would have quickly apologized for the error and returned all the money, right?

Not a chance.