Summary:
IRS takes assets for past due taxes then the taxpayer tries to regain possession.

Four Internal Revenue Service agents and a deputy sheriff finished preparing farm equipment to be towed away. Suddenly they froze. Their way out was blocked. Five angry men stood there armed with pistols, shotguns and a semiautomatic rifle.

Murray Watson, one of the armed men, arrived earlier at his friend's farm. He saw agents placing seizure tags on equipment. Thinking quickly, he told the deputy to arrest the agents--because they were attempting to steal his equipment. One agent told Watson they had the authority to seize Harvey M. Annis' equipment, but they wouldn't take any Watson could prove was his. Watson left, supposedly to get the documentation. That wasn't his plan. He left to round up friends--and weapons.

During the confrontation, the armed men threatened the agents. The agents agreed to leave the equipment alone, if the men put away their weapons. Reluctantly, they did. No one was harmed, and Watson and friends returned to their trucks. The IRS has not attempted to seize the equipment since.

The armed men were charged, convicted and sentenced to jail time. They appealed saying they had an ineffective lawyer, and the trial should have been held in Casper, Wyo., where they lived.

The appeal failed. The judge said their attorney did an effective job, and the trial was held in nearby Cheyenne where federal marshals could police it.

Taxpayers who try to impede tax collection efforts face a fine and up to two years in prison. The same penalty applies after the IRS seizes assets, if the taxpayer retrieves them. This is called "forcible rescue." In the prior case, the armed men obviously used force, but what about less violent rescues?

The IRS seized Ernest P. De Tomaso's business by tagging assets in his store. The next day he changed the store locks and safe combination, removed the tags and opened for business.

He was convicted and sentenced for forcible rescue of seized property.

De Tomaso appealed. He said this wasn't forcible because he didn't physically remove any seized items.

The appeals court disagreed. Forcible requires only the removal of the items from IRS control rather than removal from physical space. Conviction affirmed.

In another case, Sidney Brooks' attorney argued the rescue wasn't forcible. The court didn't buy it, and Brooks was convicted.

This is the story. The IRS had placed a seal on Brooks' safe deposit box in a bank vault noting the box had been seized. The agency knew the box had a lot of money, and Brooks owed $100,000 in taxes. Brooks and an accomplice came up with a scheme. They rented another box so they would have access to the vault. Later Brooks, outside the bank, threw a rock through its front window. During the confusion, the conspirator, inside the vault, grabbed the bank's master key. That's what he needed, along with the duplicate key Brooks had from the money box the IRS had seized. With the lobby still in disarray, he sneaked off with the money.

More at IRS Collections.