Owe The IRS? Bill Would Suspend Passport Rights For Delinquent Taxpayers

Welcome to the USSA people, where you might get out, but you may never be allowed to return thanks to a new Bill making it’s way into Law.  Worse is that you may never be able to leave!!  This makes it easy for the IRS to find you and keep you under control.  I have been often told that as an American Citizen, we were born with a bar code on our behinds and we get swiped daily like a loaf of bread at the grocery store.  I once had a lien for $1,500 issued by the IRS against me for some taxes they said that I owed.  When I called and asked why and  said that the only reason that  I had heard about it was  from my bank, they said that they mailed me a notice.  They asked if my address was 7901 SE 80th Street?  I explained that it was SW 80th street.  So, SE 80th Street does not exist as that would put me somewhere  in Biscayne Bay.  They said,  ” it does not matter if we sent it to an incorrect address.  We are only required to mail the notice”!!!.  This in from CBS Los Angeles.

LOS ANGELES (CBS) — A bill authored by a Southland lawmaker that could potentially allow the federal government to prevent any Americans who owe back taxes from traveling outside the U.S. is one step closer to becoming law.

Senate Bill 1813 was introduced back in November by Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Los Angeles) to “reauthorize Federal-aid highway and highway safety construction programs, and for other purposes” .

After clearing the Senate on a 74 – 22 vote on March 14, SB 1813 is now headed for a vote in the House of Representatives, where it’s expected to encounter stiffer opposition among the GOP majority.

In addition to authorizing appropriations for federal transportation and infrastructure programs, the “Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act” or “MAP-21? includes a provision that would allow for the “revocation or denial” of a passport for anyone with “certain unpaid taxes” or “tax delinquencies”.

Section 40304 of the legislation states that any individual who owes more than $50,000 to the Internal Revenue Service may be subject to “action with respect to denial, revocation, or limitation of a passport”.

The bill does allow for exceptions in the event of emergency or humanitarian situations or limited return travel to the U.S., or in cases when any tax debt is currently being repaid in a “timely manner” or when collection efforts have been suspended.

However, there does not appear to be any specific language requiring a taxpayer to be charged with tax evasion or any other crime in order to have their passport revoked or limited — only that a notice of lien or levy has been filed by the IRS.

Boxer vowed last week to push House Republicans to pass the bipartisan transportation bill that would keep the Highway Trust Fund from going bankrupt.

“Thousands of businesses are at stake, and eventually we are talking about nearly three million jobs at stake,” she said in a statement. “There are many people on both sides of the aisle in the Senate who want to get our bill, MAP-21, passed into law, and I am going to do everything I can to keep the pressure on the Republican House to do just that.”