Lawmakers urge Sessions to expedite review of cases involving seized funds

A bipartisan pair of lawmakers is urging Attorney General Jeff Sessions to expedite the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) review of cases where taxpayers had their funds seized by the IRS under an old policy.

“To help us ensure that taxpayers are made whole, please provide us an update on your agency’s actions regarding the cases in which the IRS has recommended that the DOJ return seized funds,” Reps. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.) and John Lewis (D-Ga.) said in a letter this week.

Roskam was previously the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee’s oversight subcommittee, and Lewis is the subcommittee’s top Democrat. During the last Congress, the oversight subcommittee held a series of hearings about the IRS’s practices about seizing taxpayers’ funds. 

{mosads}The IRS previously had a policy of seizing the funds of taxpayers who were suspected of “structuring” transactions under $10,000 to avoid bank-reporting requirements, even if the funds came from legal sources. In October 2014, the IRS changed its policy to seize assets in suspected structuring cases only when the funds came from illegal sources. However, a number of taxpayers whose funds were seized under the old policy still haven’t gotten their money back.

Last year, the IRS informed taxpayers who had their assets seized under the old policy that they could petition to get their money back if their funds came from legal sources.

IRS Commissioner John Koskinen has said that as of March 1, the IRS has returned more than $6 million to taxpayers and has recommended that the DOJ give back more than $16 million, according to the letter.

“We respectfully urge the DOJ to examine the cases that the IRS has recommended for remission of funds and to remit the funds expeditiously in appropriate cases, in order to assure the public that both the IRS and DOJ are carrying out their law enforcement responsibilities in a fair and just manner,” Roskam and Lewis said.