Be aware of Cash Reporting Policies.
This article from the NY Times has my panties in a bunch. Although I make my liberal, leftist, bleeding heart leanings more or less known, one place I stand (more or less) with my conservative counterparts is on regulation of business.
Because so much of my work is in compliance, boring, detailed, confusing and contradictory rules, when I see an article like this it makes me think a modern version of the Boston Tea Party is in order.
Fast Facts About the Article:
- Depositing more than $10,000 in cash requires cumbersome paperwork and reporting to the IRS
Your bank can close down your account for “inconvenience” if your business files too many of these cumbersome thingies - The IRS is using a law meant for “traffickers, racketeers and terrorists” to abuse small business owners and seize all the money in their bank accounts
- If the bank detects any sort of cash deposit “pattern” they have to report you to the IRS
- There is no “innocent until proven guilty” when it comes to the government seizing (stealing?) your private property…. “ The government can take the money without ever filing a criminal complaint, and the owners are left to prove they are innocent.”
- The legal costs of getting your cash back can eat up a huge chunk of it. Or you can “settle” and the IRS will keep what they see fit
Although the IRS insists they have changed their policy to not impact as many small business owners, who is policing the IRS? There were 639 known cases of this occurring last year. Let’s hypothetically say only half of those cases involved people wrongly targeted, that still means 320 small businesses could have, and may have lost their businesses to this practice. How many people does that effect? How many children? How many jobs? This practice is terrible!
Don’t get me wrong. I believe in taxes. I really do because I am certain a 100% capitalistic system would be terrible for the US. But stories like this do make me believe that our tax system and it’s laws need a huge overall.
One unimpeded by lobbyists or special interests to boot.
