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

[Ed Anger]

I have buried coffee cans full of silver coins for my family to dig up.

[The Minsky Moment]

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

Dont hate The Department of the Interior

Fixed.

[The Minsky Moment]

By the same token, though, federal law is bound by constitutional limits, and the IRS cannot deprive anyone of property without due process of law.  How simply seizing tax refunds in the absence of due process escapes being unconstitutional, I don't know.  I suspect one of out law-talkers can explain it.

From the article, it appears that the IRS is receiving a certification from a sister federal agency saying that a debt is owed.

[Scipio]

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?

Ex post facto law.

[MadImmortalMan]

I have buried coffee cans full of silver coins for my family to dig up.

Best way to go. No lawyers involved. 

[Norgy]

I have buried coffee cans full of silver coins for my family to dig up.

Ah, Antisocial Security.

[Barrister]

I have buried coffee cans full of silver coins for my family to dig up.

Best way to go. No lawyers involved. 

[Capetan Mihali]

Ex post facto law.

I don't see any criminal penalties associated with this...

[Ed Anger]

I have buried coffee cans full of silver coins for my family to dig up.

Ah, Antisocial Security.

[grumbler]

Ex post facto law.

I don't see any criminal penalties associated with this...

I don't see how it is a prohibited ex post facto law either.

[derspiess]

I have buried coffee cans full of silver coins for my family to dig up.

Ah, Antisocial Security.

[dps]

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?

She was 21 in 1977 when the alleged overpayment occurred.  At the time, a child could continue to receive SS survivors' or dependents' benefits through age 21 if they remained a full-time student.  Up to age 18 IIRC the checks come to the parents or guardians, but from age 18 to age 21 the check came to the child, in the child's name.

The Supreme Court has generally ruled that the prohibition on ex post facto laws applies to criminal law;  as Capetan Mihali and grumbler have pointed out, no one appears to be charged with a crime here, so ex post facto issues aren't involved.  Due process issues seem to arise from at least 2 problems--the IRS should have to prove (and the alleged debtor have an opportunity to disprove) that there actually was an overpayment, and possibly more importantly, prove that the overpayment was actually made to the person from whom it is collecting the debt.

[KRonn]

I saw on the news that this program is being suspended due to complaints from people and Congress members. Interesting...