Another Travel Ban: IRS Moves To Revoke Passports For Unpaid Taxes

Another Travel Ban: IRS Moves To Revoke Passports For Unpaid Taxes


February 2, 2017

Robert Wood




President Trump's executive order on travel may be generating big protests, but an IRS missive on travel and passports may not go down too well either. More than a year ago, in H.R.22, Congress gave the IRS a new weapon to collect taxes. Tax code Section 7345 is labeled, “Revocation or Denial of Passport in Case of Certain Tax Delinquencies.” The law isn't limited to criminal tax cases, or even cases where the IRS thinks you are trying to flee. The idea of the law is to use travel as a way to enforce tax collections. It was proposed and rejected in 2012. But by late 2015, Congress passed it and President Obama signed it.




Now, over a year later, the IRS has finally released new details on its website. If you have seriously delinquent tax debt, IRS can notify the State Department. The State Department generally will not issue or renew a passport after receiving certification from the IRS. The IRS has not yet started certifying tax debt to the State Department. The IRS says certifications will begin in early 2017, and the IRS website will be updated to indicate when this process has been implemented.




Here is the new information from the IRS. Seriously delinquent tax debt is an individual's unpaid, legally enforceable federal tax debt totaling more than $50,000 (including interest and penalties, but subject to an inflation adjustment) for which:


A notice of federal tax lien has been filed and all administrative remedies under IRC § 6320 have lapsed or been exhausted or
A levy has been issued

Some tax debt is not included in determining seriously delinquent tax debt even if it meets the above criteria. It includes tax debt:

Being paid in a timely manner under an installment agreement entered into with the IRS

Being paid in a timely manner under an offer in compromise accepted by the IRS or a settlement agreement entered into with the Justice Department

For which a collection due process hearing is timely requested in connection with a levy to collect the debt

For which collection has been suspended because a request for innocent spouse relief under IRC Section 6015 has been made




Before denying a passport, the State Department will hold your application for 90 days to allow you to:

Resolve any erroneous certification issues

Make full payment of the tax debt

Enter into a satisfactory payment alternative with the IRS

There is no grace period for resolving the debt before the State Department revokes a passport.

Taxpayer Notification. The IRS is required to notify you in writing at the time the IRS certifies seriously delinquent tax debt to the State Department. The IRS is also required to notify you in writing at the time it reverses certification. The IRS will send written notice by regular mail to your last known address.
Reversal Of Certification. The IRS will notify the State Department of the reversal of the certification when:

The tax debt is fully satisfied or becomes legally unenforceable.

The tax debt is no longer seriously delinquent.

The certification is erroneous.

The IRS will provide notice as soon as practicable if the certification is erroneous. The IRS will provide notice within 30 days of the date the debt is fully satisfied, becomes legally unenforceable or ceases to be seriously delinquent tax debt. A previously certified debt is no longer seriously delinquent when:

You and the IRS enter into an installment agreement allowing you to pay the debt over time.

The IRS accepts an offer in compromise to satisfy the debt.

The Justice Department enters into a settlement agreement to satisfy the debt.

Collection is suspended because you request innocent spouse relief under IRC Section 6015.

You make a timely request for a collection due process hearing in connection with a levy to collect the debt.

The IRS will not reverse certification where a taxpayer requests a collection due process hearing or innocent spouse relief on a debt that is not the basis of the certification. Also, the IRS will not reverse the certification because the taxpayer pays the debt below $50,000.



Judicial Review. If the IRS certified your debt to the State Department, you can file suit in the U.S. Tax Court or a U.S. District Court to have the court determine whether the certification is erroneous, or the IRS failed to reverse the certification when it was required to do so. If the court determines the certification is erroneous or should be reversed, it can order reversal of the certification.



IRC Section 7345 does not provide the court authority to release a lien or levy or award money damages in a suit to determine whether a certification is erroneous. You are not required to file an administrative claim or otherwise contact the IRS to resolve the erroneous certification issue before filing suit in the U.S. Tax Court or a U.S. District Court.

Payment of Taxes. If you can’t pay the full amount you owe, you can make alternative payment arrangements such as an installment agreement or an offer in compromise and still keep your U.S. passport. If you disagree with the tax amount or the certification was made in error, you should contact the phone number listed on Notice CP 508C. If you’ve already paid the tax debt, please send proof of that payment to the address on the Notice CP 508C. If you recently filed your tax return for the current year and expect a refund , the IRS will apply the refund to the debt and if the refund is sufficient to satisfy your seriously delinquent tax debt, the account is considered fully paid.




Passport Status. If you need to verify whether your U.S. passport has been cancelled or revoked, you should contact the State Department by calling the National Passport Information Center at 877-487-2778. If you need your U.S. passport to keep your job, once your seriously delinquent tax debt is certified, you must fully pay the balance, or make an alternative payment arrangement to keep your passport. Once you’ve resolved your tax problem with the IRS, the IRS will reverse the certification within 30 days of resolution of the issue.




Travel. If you’re leaving in a few days for international travel and need to resolve passport issues, you should call the phone number listed on Notice CP 508C. If you already have a U.S. passport, you can use your passport until you’re notified by the State Department that it’s taking action to revoke or limit your passport. If the Secretary of State decides to revoke a passport, the Secretary of State, before making the revocation, may—
Limit a previously issued passport only for return travel to the United States; or

Issue a limited passport that only permits return travel to the United States.


If your passport is cancelled or revoked, after you’re certified, you must resolve the tax debt by paying the debt in full, making alternative payment arrangements or showing that the certification is erroneous. The IRS will notify the State Department of the reversal of your certification within 30 days of the date the tax debt is resolved.




https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertw.../#3e1410a440fb

And this is liberty? Really? This is totally disgusting. Why would Republicans EVER support such tyranny? It is outrageous! Americans, wake the hell up and demand the FairTax. Get the federal government off your back, out of your wallet, and demand your freedom back. This is the craziest damn thing I've ever heard of in my life.

The new bills for the FairTax this session have been introduced. The FairTax Act of 2017 is as always HR 25 in the US House of Representatives but this year the Senate version is S 18.

The IRS already has over 100,000 federal employees. I can only imagine how many more Tyrants this BS will require but you can bet it's a lot of 'em. I guess they need to makes slaves out of Americans to keep handing out those billions and billions of EITC's to illegal aliens, refugees and immigrants. And geez, now they'll have to increase that State Department personnel to handle all the mess of holding or revoking or whatever they're doing with citizens with US passports.

Most people who owe income tax are people who couldn't afford to pay it and still survive on their own, most of them are self-employed people who have to pay the !5% self-employment tax plus the income tax plus still cover the expenses of their work. What's funniest about this stupidity is that most of the people who don't pay income tax because they can't afford to pay it don't even have a passport because they've never had enough money to go anywhere they needed one.

FAIRTAX NOW!! FAIRTAX NOW!!

And anyone stupid enough to call this the FairTax "unfair" "tax fraud" or any other derogatory name is a full-fledged idiot or employed by the Tyranny itself or by one of its Paypals. Just sayin .....

Oh geez, I'm just fumin'!! Republicans in Congress, you have lost your way, you have abandoned your roots, and disgraced your history. And yes, we know Paul Ryan was the one who ramrodded this through the House, but you should have stood up to him and McConnell, shame on you, shame on any Republican Leader who would dare fall so far from our tree than to allow something like this to pass the US Congress while under your watch and control.

DISGUSTING!!

GeorgiaPeach! Thank you so much for posting this article. I vaguely remember hearing about this some time ago, but thought it failed, then lost track of it.

First, they came for your Property.

Then, they came for your Bank Account.

Then, they came for your Wages.

Then, they came for your Passport.

Then they came for your Driver's License.

Then they came for your Internet.

Then they came for You.

But they were too late, because by that time, you'd used the last right you had that you needed and already blown your brains out.

So they can go after people for unpaid taxes...but then turn around and KNOWLINGLY process tax refunds by the BILLIONS OF DOLLARS to illegal aliens?

We need to gut the IRS.

Does this mean Al Sharpton will be stuck here?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Beezer

So they can go after people for unpaid taxes...but then turn around and KNOWLINGLY process tax refunds by the BILLIONS OF DOLLARS to illegal aliens?

We need to gut the IRS.

---

Exactly. We need to pass the FairTax. You'll note the threshold for this is $50,000 (including penalty and interest) and that's over several years, so their target isn't the big people, their goal isn't to reach the rich tax cheats, it's small self-employed people who couldn't pay them because they couldn't afford them and still survive. Their basic expenses and cost of living and family costs are fixed except for emergencies, disasters, accidents, repairs, price increases, equipment failures, customer payment default and so forth, yet the income margins float often dramatically so mathematically, they are the most vulnerable because under the income tax code, they can still owe federal income tax unless they starve the family or close the business, and have no cash-flow with which to pay them.

I'm not an expert on the tax code but I do understand it well enough from several different angles, the impact on corporate employers to flee to get away from it, small employers and self-employed entities who can afford it sometimes but not all the time, middle class and lower income individuals who can barely deal with it if all go well but one hiccup and they're doomed, the professional and high middle income class pay enormous burden and a downturn in the economy or the lay-off of one spouse and now they're doomed, trapped as well, and the rich class who pays most of the income taxes look at those numbers and compare it to how hard they worked, how many jobs they created, the risks they took and say to themselves "this isn't right" and try to find ways to evade and even they can have a deal go bad, markets change, rules change, economy flops, competitors enter the market and steal their customers and suddenly even their margins and cash-flows aren't there and can't meet it. For every tax-payer, there's a story, not every year, but one year or two years where something went wrong, things didn't go as planned and they get trapped in owing an income tax they can't pay with income.

The FairTax gets ride of income-based taxes across the board and replaces it with a simple national retail sales tax that fund Social Security and Medicare as well as our General Revenue fund for the United States Government. It's so simple, so easy, and frees everyone businesses and individuals from the madness of the federal income tax.

FairTax Act of 2017: HR 25 in the US House of Representatives and S 18 in the US Senate!

http://www.fairtaxfraud.com/fallout.asp

Government reveals over 100,000 visas revoked due to travel ban

This might put some government workers in a bind.

Legislation Introduced to Target Tax Delinquent Federal Employees

Ian Smith
January 11, 2017

Congressman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) has introduced legislation that would render individuals with seriously delinquent tax debt ineligible for federal civilian employment, contracts, or grants.

Chaffetz is introducing the Tax Accountability Act (H.R. 396) in response to IRS data which show that 100,000 federal civilian employees owed more than $1 billion in unpaid federal income taxes in FY 2015.

Chaffetz also pointed to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report which found that approximately 63,800 contractors (27,000 defense contractors, 33,000 civilian agency contractors, and 3,800 General Services Administration contractors) owed more than $7 billion in back taxes.

Chaffetz said in a statement:

Federal employees, contractors, and grant recipients are not above the law. In fact, individuals responsible for federal resources should set the standard for upholding their civic responsibility. Yet, year after year their tax delinquency is resulting in more than $1 billion owed to the federal treasury annually. This legislation ensures that these individuals are satisfying their tax obligations.

One of the key provisions of the bill is that it would require contractors, grant recipients and anybody applying for federal employment to certify their tax status when submitting a proposal or application for contracts and grants, or employment.

However, the bill exempts federal employees or applicants working to settle their tax debt and resolve outstanding liabilities, and provides a financial hardship exemption if the individual’s service is in the best interests of the United States. Federal employees would be provided 180 days to demonstrate that they meet one of the exemptions in the legislation.

Past Legislation

If this legislation sounds familiar, it’s because it has been introduced in the past.

In 2011, Chaffetz introduced legislation to fire current federal employees and prevent hiring new federal workers who have seriously delinquent tax debts. The House passed the legislation in 2012.

That bill ultimately failed to advance beyond the House. However, in 2015, the House put it to another vote but it failed to pass.

Other lawmakers have proposed similar bills as well. In 2013, for example, Senators Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-OK) and Mark Pryor (D-AR) introduced a bill that would have prohibited the federal government from employing federal employees with seriously delinquent tax debts. Coburn also said in 2014 that federal workers who have seriously delinquent tax debt pose a security risk to the United States.

And another bill that was introduced in the Senate in 2015 would have blocked bonuses for tax delinquent federal workers. It was introduced by Senators Richard Burr (R-NC) and Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV).

Both Senate bills ultimately failed to advance.

What About Congress?

A frequent question FedSmith.com users have when bills such as this one are proposed is, “Are Members of Congress included as well?”

Chaffetz hasn’t forgotten about Congress. He also introduced the Members of Congress Tax Accountability Act (H.R. 397) which would “require Members of Congress to disclose delinquent tax liability and to require an ethics inquiry into, and the garnishment of the wages of, a Member with Federal tax liability.”

Chaffetz has introduced a version of this legislation in the past as well.

- See more at: http://www.fedsmith.com/2017/01/11/l....JzX4fmSD.dpuf