Social Security, Treasury target taxpayers for their parents’ old debts

[11B4V]

 

Social Security, Treasury target taxpayers for their parents' decades-old debts

A few weeks ago, with no notice, the U.S. government intercepted Mary Grice's tax refunds from both the IRS and the state of Maryland. Grice had no idea that Uncle Sam had seized her money until some days later, when she got a letter saying that her refund had gone to satisfy an old debt to the government — a very old debt.

When Grice was 4, back in 1960, her father died, leaving her mother with five children to raise. Until the kids turned 18, Sadie Grice got survivor benefits from Social Security to help feed and clothe them.

Now, Social Security claims it overpaid someone in the Grice family — it's not sure who — in 1977. After 37 years of silence, four years after Sadie Grice died, the government is coming after her daughter. Why the feds chose to take Mary's money, rather than her surviving siblings', is a mystery.

Across the nation, hundreds of thousands of taxpayers who are expecting refunds this month are instead getting letters like the one Grice got, informing them that because of a debt they never knew about — often a debt incurred by their parents — the government has confiscated their check.

The Treasury Department has intercepted $1.9 billion in tax refunds already this year — $75 million of that on debts delinquent for more than 10 years, said Jeffrey Schramek, assistant commissioner of the department's debt management service. The aggressive effort to collect old debts started three years ago — the result of a single sentence tucked into the farm bill lifting the 10-year statute of limitations on old debts to Uncle Sam.

No one seems eager to take credit for reopening all these long-closed cases. A Social Security spokeswoman says the agency didn't seek the change; ask Treasury. Treasury says it wasn't us; try Congress. Congressional staffers say the request probably came from the bureaucracy.

The only explanation the government provides for suddenly going after decades-old debts comes from Social Security spokeswoman Dorothy Clark: "We have an obligation to current and future Social Security beneficiaries to attempt to recoup money that people received when it was not due."

Since the drive to collect on very old debts began in 2011, the Treasury Department has collected $424 million in debts that were more than 10 years old. Those debts were owed to many federal agencies, but the one that has many Americans howling this tax season is the Social Security Administration, which has found 400,000 taxpayers who collectively owe $714 million on debts more than 10 years old. The agency expects to have begun proceedings against all of those people by this summer.

"It was a shock," said Grice, 58. "What incenses me is the way they went about this. They gave me no notice, they can't prove that I received any overpayment, and they use intimidation tactics, threatening to report this to the credit bureaus."

Grice filed suit against the Social Security Administration in federal court in Greenbelt this week, alleging that the government violated her right to due process by holding her responsible for a $2,996 debt supposedly incurred under her father's Social Security number.

Social Security officials told Grice that six people — Grice, her four siblings and her father's first wife, whom she never knew — had received benefits under her father's account. The government doesn't look into exactly who got the overpayment; the policy is to seek compensation from the oldest sibling and work down through the family until the debt is paid.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/social-security-treasury-target-hundreds-of-thousands-of-taxpayers-for-parents-old-debts/2014/04/10/74ac8eae-bf4d-11e3-bcec-b71ee10e9bc3_story.html

[CountDeMoney]

Can't collect on Teabagger cattle ranchers, gotta make up the difference somehow.

[11B4V]

Can't collect on Teabagger cattle ranchers, gotta make up the difference somehow.

Dont hate.

[LaCroix]

household receives too much money from social security

years later the mistake is corrected by withholding tax refund from one member of that household

scandal

[MadImmortalMan]

Oh I am so screwed. 

[Norgy]

Ah, Washington Post, in the pocket of one of the richest people alive.
Jeff Bezos. Your agenda is well-known.

[grumbler]

household receives too much money from social security

years later the mistake is corrected by withholding tax refund from one member of that household

scandal

Somebody (no one knows who, because Feds didn't document)) receives too much money from the Feds. Thirty-seven years later, Feds arbitrarily pick eldest child of some dead guy to repay debt.  Scandal. 

LaCroix doesn't get it.  No scandal there.

[KRonn]

Now, Social Security claims it overpaid someone in the Grice family — it's not sure who — in 1977. After 37 years of silence, four years after Sadie Grice died, the government is coming after her daughter. Why the feds chose to take Mary's money, rather than her surviving siblings', is a mystery.   

Unreal. I heard this on the news last week. Also mentioned was how Congress let lapse the 10 year liability on things like this, old debts, and now IRS can chase you down forever. The IRS makes many mistakes, plus people trying to keep such old records, just opens up a whole lot of room for abuse. 

[Darth Wagtaros]

I know people who've had nervous breakdowns working for the IRS.  It's a pretty messed up place.

[LaCroix]

Somebody (no one knows who, because Feds didn't document)) receives too much money from the Feds. Thirty-seven years later, Feds arbitrarily pick eldest child of some dead guy to repay debt.  Scandal. 

LaCroix doesn't get it.  No scandal there.

from a legal standpoint, the issue does not appear to be (at least at this time) that the Feds should not have withheld a tax refund from a woman, due to an overcharge, who directly/indirectly benefited from her father's social security

the issue, as the attorney indicated, appears to be a potential constitutionality issue regarding a "retroactive lifting of the 10-year limit on debt collection"

[CountDeMoney]

I know people who've had nervous breakdowns working for the IRS.  It's a pretty messed up place.

Worrying about truck bombs and airplanes crashing into your break room will do that.

[Admiral Yi]

from a legal standpoint, the issue does not appear to be (at least at this time) that the Feds should not have withheld a tax refund from a woman, due to an overcharge, who directly/indirectly benefited from her father's social security

Unless there was an inheritance, I don't see how you can assume this.  We don't know how the parents spent the money.

the issue, as the attorney indicated, appears to be a potential constitutionality issue regarding a "retroactive lifting of the 10-year limit on debt collection"

How is this a constitutional issue?

[Valmy]

I hope those grannies who blow their whole SS check on slots in Vegas will think twice from now on 

[mongers]

household receives too much money from social security

years later the mistake is corrected by withholding tax refund from one member of that household

scandal

Somebody (no one knows who, because Feds didn't document)) receives too much money from the Feds. Thirty-seven years later, Feds arbitrarily pick eldest child of some dead guy to repay debt.  Scandal. 

LaCroix doesn't get it.  No scandal there.

Presumably she never received a cheque made out in her name for these benefits. And being a child* at the time wasn't she below the age of legal responsibility ?



*at what age do you become liable for debt,when can you legally sign a consumer credit deal for instance?

[celedhring]

How can you be liable for the debt of your dead parent? Is it because of sharing the same SS number when she was young? Looks fucked up to me.