{"id":9428,"date":"2021-07-10T17:54:10","date_gmt":"2021-07-10T17:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.buyucoin.com\/crypto-labs\/ncla-files-appeal-against-the-irs-law-firm-claims-tax-agency-unlawfully-seizes-crypto-data-of-thousands\/"},"modified":"2021-07-10T17:54:10","modified_gmt":"2021-07-10T17:54:10","slug":"ncla-files-appeal-against-the-irs-law-firm-claims-tax-agency-unlawfully-seizes-crypto-data-of-thousands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.buyucoin.com\/crypto-labs\/ncla-files-appeal-against-the-irs-law-firm-claims-tax-agency-unlawfully-seizes-crypto-data-of-thousands\/","title":{"rendered":"NCLA Files Appeal Against the IRS \u2014 Law Firm Claims Tax Agency Unlawfully Seizes Crypto Data of Thousands"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Friday, the public interest law firm New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA) filed an opening brief in the cryptocurrency case of James Harper v. Charles P. Rettig. The NCLA argues that Harper\u2019s Fourth and Fifth Amendment constitutional rights were violated by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The U.S. tax agency is accused of obtaining Harper\u2019s information from crypto asset exchanges without valid subpoenas or statutory limitations.<\/strong><\/p>\n

IRS Accused of Accessing American Citizens\u2019 Private Information Without Following Statutory Limitations on Power to Issue Subpoenas<\/h2>\n

The NCLA has revealed it filed an opening brief<\/a> in the case James Harper v. Charles P. Rettig in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. The NCLA is a nonpartisan nonprofit civil rights entity and public interest law firm that aims to protect constitutional freedoms from violations by the government.<\/p>\n

The case involves a man named James Harper who has brought litigation against the IRS, the 49th commissioner of the U.S. tax agency Charles Rettig, and 10 \u201cJohn Doe IRS agents.\u201d The NCLA and Harper argue that the IRS took Harper\u2019s financial information without \u201creasonable suspicion and without a judicial warrant.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHarper has plausibly pled that [the] IRS violated his constitutional and statutory rights,\u201d the civil rights organization\u2019s opening brief details.<\/p>\n

It all started in 2019 when the IRS sent Harper a letter stating that he did not \u201cproperly report\u201d his \u201ctransactions involving virtual currency.\u201d The IRS also published<\/a> a press release that summer that revealed 10,000 American cryptocurrency owners received a letter from the tax agency. The letters were sent to taxpayers who have \u201cparticipated in virtual currency transactions or otherwise did not report past transactions properly,\u201d the IRS noted.<\/p>\n

\u201cTaxpayers should take these letters very seriously,\u201d IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig emphasized in the press release.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

IRS Hides Behind Anti-Injunction Act, Supreme Court Says the Tax Agency \u2018Cannot Block Lawsuits Challenging Constitutionality\u2019<\/h2>\n

The NCLA and Harper are hoping the Appellant Court allows an oral argument of the case. The civil liberties law firm wholeheartedly believes this case affects the plaintiff\u2019s constitutional rights. \u201cThis case presents important legal questions about whether the sovereign immunity of the United States bars suits challenging the government\u2019s illegal information-gathering practices and whether injunctive or declaratory relief is available in such situations,\u201d the NCLA\u2019s opening brief stresses.<\/p>\n

Caleb Kruckenberg, a litigation counsel member of the NCLA, said that he believes the First Circuit can fix this situation. \u201cEarlier this year, the Supreme Court held that the IRS cannot block lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of its behavior by hiding behind the Anti-Injunction Act,\u201d Kruckenberg said in a statement to Bitcoin.com News. \u201cUnfortunately, that decision came out after the district court allowed the IRS to abuse the law in just that way. According to the Supreme Court, though, this case is a \u2018cinch,\u2019 and the First Circuit should swiftly reinstate this lawsuit.\u201d<\/p>\n

The IRS is using very advanced investigation techniques:<\/p>\n

They have information that leads them to believe I may have crypto-currency.
Say it ain’t so!
Such sleuthing. WOW. <\/p>\n

PS. I reported and paid all my taxes properly. They’re casting a very wide net blindly. Cheap and easy. pic.twitter.com\/NnpEq84B6q<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Andreas (BEWARE of giveaway scams!) (@aantonop) August 16, 2019<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

NCLA litigation counsel member, Adi Dynar, says the IRS does not have a sufficient reason to \u201cclaim that the information it possesses\u201d can be obtained without due process. Dynar says that if the IRS took proper procedures then it could result in the assessment or collection of taxes. \u201cBut the Fourth and Fifth Amendments to the Constitution do not contain an IRS exception,\u201d Dynar said in a statement. The NCLA\u2019s opening brief describes how the IRS violated Harper\u2019s rights and obtained his financial information from third parties.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The] IRS\u2019s actions violated core constitutional protections under the Fourth and Fifth Amendments,\u201d the NCLA opening brief details. \u201cAssuming the IRS took his information from one or more exchanges, Mr. Harper\u2019s contracts recognized that his data is his property, not that of the exchanges, and supplied him with a reasonable expectation of privacy in his personal information. The contracts made clear that he did not voluntarily surrender his Fourth Amendment rights by doing business with them. The IRS seized his information without due process.\u201d The NCLA further added:<\/p>\n

IRS did not provide Mr. Harper with any notice or opportunity to contest its lawless information gathering. That lack of process violates the Fifth Amendment\u2019s due-process guarantee. IRS\u2019s third-party collection of Mr. Harper\u2019s information is also a Fourth Amendment trespass against Mr. Harper because it seized his personal papers without a warrant. The IRS also failed to protect Mr. Harper\u2019s statutory rights when it obtained his personal papers from third parties.<\/p>\n

The NCLA\u2019s brief notes that the IRS should have its interest aligned with Harper\u2019s rights and the tax agency should have obtained the records in compliance with the Fourth and Fifth Amendments. \u201cThe Court should conclude that the district court has subject-matter jurisdiction and that Mr. Harper has stated a claim upon which relief can be granted,\u201d the NCLA\u2019s opening brief concludes.<\/p>\n

What do you think about the case against the IRS? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Bitcoin News
\nTaxes, Charles Rettig, Constitution, crypto exchanges, Crypto Information, Cryptocurrency Data, data, Due Process, Financial Information, First Circuit, Fourth and Fifth Amendments, Internal Revenue Service, IRS, IRS Commissioner, James Harper, Lawsuit, ncla, NCLA litigation, opening brief, Supreme Court, Supreme Court Decision, Third Party, Warrant, without a judicial warrant.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Friday, the public interest law firm New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA) filed an opening brief in the cryptocurrency case of James Harper v. Charles P. Rettig. The NCLA argues that Harper\u2019s Fourth and Fifth Amendment constitutional rights were violated by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The U.S. tax agency is accused of obtaining Harper\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":9429,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blockchain-news","category-coin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.buyucoin.com\/crypto-labs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9428"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.buyucoin.com\/crypto-labs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.buyucoin.com\/crypto-labs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyucoin.com\/crypto-labs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyucoin.com\/crypto-labs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9428\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyucoin.com\/crypto-labs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.buyucoin.com\/crypto-labs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyucoin.com\/crypto-labs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyucoin.com\/crypto-labs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}