{"id":18314,"date":"2011-01-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-01-03T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/child-abduction-irs\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T22:01:32","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T22:01:32","slug":"child-abduction-irs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/child-abduction-irs\/","title":{"rendered":"Child Abduction and the IRS"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you're reading this, something about your tax situation has you worried. That's fair \u2014 the IRS is intimidating until you know how the rules actually work. I'm Darrin Mish, a Tampa tax attorney. I've handled cases like yours for 32 years. Let me walk you through it.<\/p>\n

About 200,000 children are abducted by one or both of their parents in the US every year. \u00a0These are cases where the parent who has not been granted custody of the child illegally takes the child away from the custodial parent or guardian. \u00a0And these abductors file tax returns to the IRS claiming tax relief for child support. \u00a0This gives the IRS valuable information on the whereabouts of these abducted children.<\/div>\n

Click here for even more tax relief help information.<\/a><\/p>\n

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However the dilemma for the IRS is in disclosing this information and its repercussions. \u00a0The law on taxpayer privacy safeguards the information from the investigating authorities. \u00a0Thus even though the IRS has information that could lead investigators to the whereabouts of the missing children, it is bound by law not to disclose it.<\/div>\n
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One clear example is in 2007 where a Treasury Department study that compared data for 1,731 family abduction cases with tax return data found that in 520 of these cases the Social Security numbers of the missing children could be matched with that on tax returns. \u00a0In about half of these 520 cases, there was a new address provided in the returns where the missing children were residing. \u00a0The abductors willingly revealed their addresses for claims purposes. \u00a0Yet not one of those cases was used to locate the missing children. \u00a0A federal court judge in Virginia prohibited the IRS from releasing the information to investigators.<\/div>\n
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The only means the IRS has been using to help families find missing children is their \u2018Picture Them Home\u2019 program where pictures of missing children are printed on tax returns. \u00a0This program has only helped find about 80 children since 2001. \u00a0Incidentally, with the increase of electronic filings, this program itself will die an eventual death.<\/div>\n
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But the IRS could do so much more if given the authority under the law.<\/div>\n
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The taxpayer privacy laws seek to protect the taxpayers from having their financial information used against them. \u00a0Everyone is presumed innocent until proven guilty and has a right not to give information that may incriminate themselves. \u00a0If taxpayer privacy laws are abolished wholesale, there would be nothing stopping someone from filing his tax returns with nothing more than a name, Social Security number and a statement that he is invoking his Fifth Amendment rights not to incriminate himself.<\/div>\n
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In 2004, Dennis DeConcini who is a former Democrat senator from Arizona tried to propose changes in the legislation. \u00a0But the proposal never saw the light of day because other lawmakers were fearful of what the abolishment of taxpayer privacy rights would lead to.<\/div>\n
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Yet on the other hand there are the cost and agony to all concerned parties when children are abducted. \u00a0These children are forcibly separated from the person the court has determined should be their legal guardian. \u00a0The affected parents lose their once in a lifetime chance to see their children grow up.<\/div>\n
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This is the IRS dilemma on abducted children.<\/div>\n

Check out more Tax Related News<\/a> stories by clicking that link.<\/p>\n

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<\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you're reading this, something about your tax situation has you worried. That's fair \u2014 the IRS is intimidating until you know how the rules actually work. I'm Darrin Mish, a Tampa tax attorney. I've handled cases like yours for 32 years. Let me walk you through it. About 200,000 children are abducted by one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[591],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-irs-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18314"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21879,"href":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18314\/revisions\/21879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}