IRS Abuse Reports

prepared for the committees
in the
United States Senate
and the
House of Representatives
investigating the
Internal Revenue Service

Prepared and Maintained
by the
Kenneth A. Clark Foundation

Internet
email: sue@irs.class-action.com
web site: www.neo-tech.com/irs-class-action/

By Joseph Daniel McCool
Union Leader Correspondent

DERRY -- The IRS has formally denied a Derry widow's allegations that its tax debt collection activities pushed her lawyer husband to commit suicide one year ago today.

And in other court documents filed in U.S. District Court in Concord yesterday by the IRS, Donna Greeley, the collection agent who has been sued for violating Shirley Barron's civil rights and those of her late husband, Salem-based attorney Bruce E. Barron, has answered the family's lawsuit by asking the court to dismiss the case and claiming "qualified immunity" from prosecution.

Mrs. Barron recently sued the IRS in a civil action for $1 million in damages for what she claims was the pattern of illegal, intimidating and stress-causing harassment her late husband and family suffered at the hands of Greeley and her IRS supervisors, who were working to recoup hundreds of thousands of dollars in delinquent federal taxes owed by the family.

Lawyers for Mrs. Barron are seeking to prove the IRS pushed Mr. Barron to suicide by employing unlawful collection activities and by delaying an alleged settlement that he could have otherwise avoided simply by declaring personal bankruptcy.

The Taxpayers' Bill of Rights, which was amended in Congress last year, grants taxpayers the right to seek up to $1 million in damages if they can prove that the IRS "recklessly or intentionally" resorted to unauthorized tax-collection measures.

In previous documents filed in Concord court, the IRS has denied the allegation that Greeley sought to "intentionally embarrass, harass, or humiliate" Bruce or Shirley Barron.

David Hatherley, of the IRS' Boston appeals division, wrote in an internal memo obtained by Mrs. Barron's lawyers that "I do not believe that the IRS was responsible for Mr. Barron's death."

In the documents submitted to the court yesterday, the IRS has denied that Greeley ever violated the law in her attempts to recover morte than $200,000 in delinquent federal taxes owed by the family. The IRS answer to Mrs. Barron's lawsuit also denies that an IRS officer in Manchester indicated to Mr. Barron and his representatives that the agency would accept a settlement offer discussed during a meeting in September 1995.

In answering claims by the family's lawyers, the federal agency also denies that Greeley was told that her collection activities were pushing Mr. Barron toward suicidal tendencies. It also denies that Greeley was aware of the claim that the ongoing tax collection case was causing Mrs. Barron "extreme psychological harm and loss of sleep." To many of the family's charges, the IRS has replied that it "lacks sufficient knowledge or information to form a belief as to the truth of the allegation."

Mrs. Barron said she and her husband claimed substantial losses from the closure of a business, but that when the losses were recaptured and levied by the IRS, they were left owing about $80,000 in back taxes. But the family's tax debt, covering unpaid taxes from tax years 1986 through 1992 and including penalties and interest, grew to $233,268.

In 1993, the Barrons' tax collection case was assigned to Greeley, who mounted a debt collection campaign during 1994 and 1995 that included her placing liens on the family's home in Derry and its summer vacation home in Chatham, Mass., in an attempt to recover the taxes.

The lawsuit claims that Greeley demanded that Mr. Barron's legal clients pay the IRS directly for their legal services instead of him, a measure that caused Mr. Barron great embarrassment, humiliation and stress over the potential downfall of his legal practice.

On August 5, 1996, Mr. Barron opened a certified letter containing the bad news that his home was being foreclosed on. He penned a suicide note at his law office in Salem blaming the IRS for his demise, telephoned his wife that he'd be late coming home that night and drove two-and-a-half hours to the family vacation home on Cape Cod.

There, the 47-year-old attorney, who grew up in Salem, pulled his car into the garage, closed the garage door and let his car motor idle until he was overcome with deadly fumes. An autopsy confirmed that he had died from carbon monoxide poisoning.

Since Mr. Barron's suicide last summer, the IRS has foreclosed on the family's vacation home in Chatham, placed a lien on the home in Derry, seized Mrs. Barron's 1996 tax refunds and placed a claim against the $200,000 that she has received thus far from one of her late husband's two life insurance policies and also the outstanding $200,000 policy.

Date: March 20, 1996
To: sue@irs.class-action.com
From: KS

I just finished reading all of the IRS abuse reports. I feel so very sorry for each of these people and their loved ones. About three-quarters of the way through reading the reports, I had to take a break and lie down as I had become so nauseated from the vile destruction of these innocent victims.

When I came back to my computer, by the time I had finished reading the reports I wanted to lash out in the worst way. Emotionally, I felt like, `these intentionally devastating criminal-minded IRS agents should be taken out into a field, shot in the head and left for the buzzards.' (I realize that what I just wrote is irrational and senseless, yet I feel better having written it.)

When I came back to my senses I thought damn, it's the judges that condone these malevolent IRS creatures. I want to parade every "satanic" judge with their colluding IRS bureaucrats in front of the world so that they can see them for what they really are. Then sell off unnecessary IRS properties and judicial properties until every victim is repaid in full (interest included). And that's not even enough because there is no way to amend the physical, emotional and financial loss that has already besieged these innocent victims and their loved ones.

It just makes me sick! DAMN RIGHT I'M ANGRY!!