The tax-relief industry loves to make IRS problems sound impossible without them. They're not. I'm Darrin Mish. I've been representing taxpayers before the IRS for 32 years. Let me explain how this actually works.<\/p>\n
The contentious issue of legislation barring tax information from being released that could lead to missing children may be changed soon. \u00a0According to the Justice Department\u2019s statistics, about 200,000 children are abducted each year, mostly by family members. \u00a0In 2007, the Treasury department found that out of 1,700 family abductions, more than one third of the abductors used the child\u2019s Social Security number to claim them as dependants in their tax returns. \u00a0This means the child\u2019s and the abductor\u2019s whereabouts are known to the IRS<\/a>.
\nCalifornia Rep. Pete Stark and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, both from the Republican party, introduced legislation recently that would disbar the IRS from sharing some taxpayer information with law enforcement in order to locate missing children.
\nAt a news conference on the occasion of National Missing Children day, Stark said, \u201cThe information is there, and there\u2019s no reason that law enforcement, given a proper identification, shouldn\u2019t have that available tool that will protect the tax privacy of the parents where it is needed.\u201d \u00a0Klobuchar added, \u201cOne of the ways we can try everything is by unearthing and opening up some information that\u2019s sitting in computers right now, and making sure, following all protections, that it gets in the hands of the local law enforcement that need it to find these missing children.\u201d \u00a0Also present at the press conference along with Stark and Klobuchar were Republican Minnesota Rep. Erik Paulsen, Republican Ohio Rep. Pat Tiberi and Democratic Connecticut Rep. Joe Courtney.
\nNonprofit organization, One Missing Link, headed by Janis McCall whose own daughter, Stacy was abducted along with a friend and the friend\u2019s mother since 1992 came out in full support of the proposed legislation and urged Congress to endorse it.
\nMcCall said, \u201cIf we\u2019re able to do this, if we\u2019re able to cross-match and use these Social Security numbers from IRS, if the law enforcement is able to, then there are probably 20,000 children out there that can be reunited with the custodial parent, the one that has been searching for many years, so it\u2019s especially important.\u201d
\nEven though the legislation would not bring her daughter back, McCall is optimistic it would help many other families.
\nCommenting on her own daughter Stacy\u2019s abduction, McCall said, \u201cWe have no idea who took them. \u00a0We have no idea where they are. \u00a0All we can do is keep praying.\u201d<\/p>\n