International Plunder Like A Pirate Day

I couldn’t make this shit up if I tried.

I learned today that the IRS put a levy on the only $7,409.45 I had to my name located in a credit union savings account.

As some of you may know, I have been disabled, unemployed and unemployable (due to disability) for the last 3 years.

I am a young adult, aged 29, with only one “job” ever in my life as a papergirl in which my ’employer’ illegally exploited me. Eventually the job itself lead to multiple permanent physical injuries which resulted in debilitating immune dysfunction and exacerbate my pre-existing psychological conditions, consequently means an inability to be employed for the rest of my life.

A meager and dwindling workers’ compensation settlement plus a personal win in a state court therafter enabled me to at least barely survive on that and state disability insurance until just recently when benefits were exhausted.

The remainder is unavailable to me in order for me to pay rent, utilities, or buy food, much less care for my pets.

My ‘bank’ tells me that by October 6, 2006 the last pennies to my name will be handed over to an agency giving no valid reason for such.

According the IRS:

We must release your levy if any of the following occur:
…
We determine that the levy is creating a significant economic hardship for you.
…

I need your cooperation to disperse information about the background of the people and businesses responsible for this atrocious injustice and why. It should be noted that I recently cooperated with the IRS, indeed offered information to them about illegal employment practices regarding my very former only ’employer’ ever in my life. I guess instead of going for the big fish, they chose to fry the small one.

It is bigger than one would think on first glance: a powerful republican-owned newspaper run by Wall Street offered me a “shut up settlement” I refused several months ago; plus class action lawsuits all over the country are overturning similar employment exploits in almost 20 of over 50 states, if I recall correctly, but few speak out or are shut up through means like IRS levies; I happen to have an eyewitness to my illegal firing; he was also fired around the same time as I was for similar but ironically seemingly contrary reasons, in other words he paid all taxes he even suspected he might owe (indeed worked for an IRS accounting firm very near to where we picked up our work assignments) as an ‘independent contractor’!

Even if the employer considered me an independent contractor, I still could not in good conscience file with the IRS suspecting or knowing otherwise; later when the state court decided I was indeed NOT an independent contractor but an employee and approved me for State Disability Insurance (prior to that when filing for SDI, the state claimed to have no ‘wages’ listed, zero, after working for 7-days a week, no rest breaks, no time off, for almost 2 years straight; in violation of Labor Code and Industrial Wage Commission mandates). I should not be held liable or penalized for mistakes the Santa Cruz Sentinel made over four years ago.

Update: I have learned that the IRS thinks I owe them $11,169.34 based on a 1040a that was never filed (or perhaps forged) for the year 2002 in which I earned only $27,839.09 reported to the IRS by my employer on a Form 1099-MISC from which Self-Employed individuals (which we were not) may file for Self-Employment taxes; as opposed to an employer requiring a signed W-4 to issue a W-2 in which taxes are taken out prior to issuing ‘wages’ so that an individual may file a Form 1040a. I have had to fax a Form 911 to a Local Taxpayer Advocate for emergency intervention due to severe economic hardship without ability to pay for basic living necessities.

Read more about statutory employees, statutory nonemployees, common law employment, and the nature of my work on the last four pages of my document here.

I will never forget the day I began learning about all this. I had to be 14 years old or less when I started noticing my parents frantically trying to fill out complicated forms, and fearing I might acquire an allergy from a year’s worth of receipts floating in the air I started asking questions like, “So, what is all this for? Why do you have to send this in to .. where .. and for whom?” In all their great wisdom (truly, I thank them for this to this day) they responded (also, again, frantically), “Everyone just has to. Go look it up at the library.” Consequently I asked, “So, some agency will be mailing me a form when I come of age and I will have to respond and comply?” To which they replied, “No, again you have to find the forms yourself, usually libraries have them. Then also find the proper place to file and make sure you do it on time.” This perplexed me. Even in that day I hated the library. I admit it intimidated me that I could never find the reference section, much less make any sense of it. But I braved it anyway, determined to get more definitive answers than my parents could give me. It didn’t take me long to find out that 1) they completely misunderstood why they were filing 1040s every year, and 2) they were actually filing them illegally, only under duress. When people are afraid, they do not think to question. This is unfortunate as it allows any bully to have power over them quickly and easily. Bullies will always be bullies, perhaps most will never stop. But you can stop yourself from allowing it to happen. If you were aware someone were cheating in a card game you were playing, you would stop playing the game and perhaps turn in the cheater. You would not play until you lost everything. Don’t wait for it to happen to you. Fortunately I’ve been prepared from an early age, but I also never thought it would happen to me. It did. Don’t wait until then to learn about the very things that can protect you now and also save you in the future.

Update: I have made contact with Shirley Finn, Local Taxpayer Advocate in Oakland, CA (rather than San Jose, CA) and been told I have to prove my economic distress by filing another form, 433-F, along with sending copies of the past 3 months worth of bank statements, income (of which there is none) and notices of eviction or utilities being turned off.

I should hope I won’t have to prove after Oct. 6th that this levy indeed caused such to inevitably happen. I have been afforded no due process yet bear the burden of proof. It is unbelievable that every agency involved in this misconduct doesn’t have to prove anything. I am assumed guilty and must prove my own innocence. Equally uncanny is the fact that every agency along the way that pushed the paper trail (if there even is one in reality) claims to have no easy access to the very records they have been analyzing so carefully for so many years. Once again, I am required to make and re-file copies of all the records they already have access to quite easily with a simple phone call, fax, letter and/or e-mail. I do the job of three people or more, yet I don’t get paid for defending myself.

Update: I’ve contacted a Representative of Congresswoman Anna G. Eshoo for help with federal agencies. I e-mailed, faxed a Privacy Release, and called and left a message requesting emergency intervention. I called Shirley Finn and left a message inquiring as to whether she received my certified mail and requested documents and if she’d acted on it yet, or if she would within a day before it’s too late.

I feel as if I have woken up from a 2-week long bad dream.

(Oct. 5th) :: Resolution! The levy hath been released. I would like to publicly thank so many people for their support along the way. Jeroen and Nico for reading so much legalese; Mom for sending $100 to keep me afloat; Dad for the allowance of using his long-distance calling card; Aaron, lawyer working on my case for Social Security SSI; and last but not least my long-term caretaker Fred, who bravely put his gloom and doom attitude aside at the last moment, and advised me to call my Congresswoman, as usual just in time for salvation. 🙂

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In the spirit of the real International Talk Like a Pirate Day, I encourage you to don a unique pirate name for yourself, Jim Lad! 😉 You can call me Iron Grace Bonney!