Protecting my financial assets

[AllyChaseBofa]

What is the name of your state? - CA
I am a legal immigrant (green card holder) and a small donor to the democratic party. Lately with the current election results, I have been concerned if the incoming administration can use the IRS or similar agencies to go after small donors like me for minor infractions and take away all my wealth. If so would I have any legal recourse? I have never broken any laws related to tax or immigration. I believe there is no way to freeze my assets without a court order, but since I am not very familiar with the law here I wanted to be sure. I am not super concerned about deportation but don't want to lose my money

 

[Just Blue]

What is the name of your state? - CA
I am a legal immigrant (green card holder) and a small donor to the democratic party. Lately with the current election results, I have been concerned if the incoming administration can use the IRS or similar agencies to go after small donors like me for minor infractions and take away all my wealth. If so would I have any legal recourse? I have never broken any laws related to tax or immigration. I believe there is no way to freeze my assets without a court order, but since I am not very familiar with the law here I wanted to be sure. I am not super concerned about deportation but don't want to lose my money

First, I want to apologize that you are made to feel this concern. It is horrible that people, living here legally, in the US are made to feel this fear and insecurity. Know that many of us are absolutely disgusted by what is happening.

I am tagging the site vetted Tax Attorney that volunteers here to advise you: @Taxing Matters

 

[zddoodah]

I have been concerned if the incoming administration can use the IRS or similar agencies to go after small donors like me for minor infractions and take away all my wealth.

Get yourself some tin (actually aluminum) foil and make a hat.

If so would I have any legal recourse?

Whether you would have legal recourse would obviously depend on what exactly might happen. I doubt anyone here cares to invent insane hypotheticals to fuel your paranoia and then conduct a legal analysis thereof.

 

[quincy]

… I doubt anyone here cares to invent insane hypotheticals to fuel your paranoia and then conduct a legal analysis thereof.

I think a certain amount of paranoia might be justifiable, given the proposals outlined in Project 2025 and given our country’s abuses of segments of our population in the past.

As a person who personally knows Japanese Americans whose personal possessions were confiscated by the government and who were relocated to internment camps during World War II, I have no illusions about what our government is capable of doing.

 

[LdiJ]

What is the name of your state? - CA
I am a legal immigrant (green card holder) and a small donor to the democratic party. Lately with the current election results, I have been concerned if the incoming administration can use the IRS or similar agencies to go after small donors like me for minor infractions and take away all my wealth. If so would I have any legal recourse? I have never broken any laws related to tax or immigration. I believe there is no way to freeze my assets without a court order, but since I am not very familiar with the law here I wanted to be sure. I am not super concerned about deportation but don't want to lose my money

I apologize for the incredibly rude behavior of one of the other posters. That poster does not appear to understand cultural differences or mindsets.

It is highly unlikely that anyone would attempt to do something like what you have described, despite the rhetoric that you have heard during the election process. Should anyone attempt to do anything like that, there are many safeguards in place that would prevent it from happening.

Are there laws that allow seizure of assets due to criminal activity? Yes, the RICO laws do allow for that. However, the RICO laws are specifically in place to combat organized crime. Trying to use the RICO laws against political opponents, particularly small donors, would do a political party far more harm than good.

 

[quincy]

… Should anyone attempt to do anything like that, there are many safeguards in place that would prevent it from happening. …

It is clear from history that the “safeguards” are not fail safe.

 

[LdiJ]

It is clear from history that the “safeguards” are not fail safe.

I do agree that safeguards are not fail safe. However, I don't think that we are quite that far gone yet that the administration elect could get away with persecuting the average citizen and/or seizing their assets for their political affiliations.

 

[quincy]

I do agree that safeguards are not fail safe. However, I don't think that we are quite that far gone yet that the administration elect could get away with persecuting the average citizen and/or seizing their assets for their political affiliations.

I guess we will have to see what the future brings.

 

[Taxing Matters]

I am a legal immigrant (green card holder) and a small donor to the democratic party. Lately with the current election results, I have been concerned if the incoming administration can use the IRS or similar agencies to go after small donors like me for minor infractions and take away all my wealth.

The first thing to know is that only the Democratic Party is going to know about your small donation. You cannot deduct deductions for contributions to a candidate's campaign or to a political party. As there is no tax benefit here there isn't any reason you'd disclose the contribution on your federal income tax return. In short, the IRS won't have any information about small political donations you made. The second thing to know is under federal tax law the IRS is very restricted in the circumstances in which it may disclose your tax return information to persons or organizations outside the IRS. Even if the donations were deductible and showed up on your return, the IRS cannot automatically give that information to the president or anyone else in his administration.

The president can get only get information with regard to a particular taxpayer. That means that the president would first have to know the names and indentifying information of the people who his staff thought might have that information on their returns. that's at the very least a daunting task they have no good leads to build on. In short, a blanket request by the president and his staff for all returns taking a specific deduction or reporting a particular source of income will be denied by the IRS because federal prohibits that disclosure. The only persons who can make blanket requests for information from the IRS are the chairpersons of the House Ways and Means committee, the Senate Finance committee, and the Joint Committee on Taxation. However, these committees are prohibited by federal tax law from distributing any information obtained about specific taxpayers to anyone not on those committees.

The tax law tightly regulates disclosure of return information so that taxpayers will be willing to report everything accurately on their returns without fear that the return information will be disclosed to those who would abuse that information. The law provides criminal and civil penalties for wrongful disclosure by the IRS, and IRS employees working with taxpayer return information are keenly aware of that as they get annual training reminding them of the disclosure restrictions.

You are a legal resident of the U.S. That means the federal government cannot just kick you out of the country or seize your property at anay time. The government has to prove you've done something that the law says results in revocation of your permanent residence status and the government has to have valid reason for seizing your property and provide you due process before it may take your property, including giving you recourse in the courts.

Trump's anti-immigrant rants on the campaign trail were popular with his base, which is why he continued to use them. But the impression he gave that federal officers can just sweep through your city/town and round up all immigrants, take their property, and kick them out of the country the next day just isn't accurate. The immigrants that are most at risk of quick removal are those who are caught as they sneak across the border. Once in the U.S. and out of the border zone area the immigrants have rights to due process before they may be removed, and no one in Trump's administration is going to be able to get around that Constitutional requirement.

This doesn't mean that you don't have any reasons for concern that the president and Congress might take actions that would adversefly affect you. You'll want to pay close attention to any immigration related announcements the federal puts out so you are on top of what's going on and take steps to protect yourself if you are one of the immigrants that would be affected. From what I'm hearing Trump's team is going to make a big show of going out to remove a bunch of aliens who are not lawfully present in the U.S. and then Trump will claim to his supporters that he fulfilled his campaign promises. That's the low hanging fruit for them to go after. Trying to remove lawful permanent residents who have done nothing to trigger loss of their residence status would be a battle the government couldn't win and I don't see the Trump White House being foolish enough to try that.

 

[Bali Hai Again]

The government of the people has received a mandate to remove “illegal” immigrants and stop the illegal flow of them into this country. Unless you are an ILLEGAL immigrant you have nothing to be concerned about. Ignore hysterical comments made to try to legitimize illegal activities. And you have every right to make contributions to Hollywood celebrities for a presidential campaign.

 

[stealth2]

Although I *rationally* understand that such actions will be more difficult to achieve than the upcoming administration would like to think, I don't believe it to be "tin foil hat" territory to be concerned. The president-elect has stated that *legal* (including those naturalized as citizens) will be given the choice to "self-deport" if they have family members here illegally being deported. He has also stated that after undocumented criminals are deported, "others" will be next. It is not "tin foil hat" territory to believe naturalized citizens may be swept un as part of the "others", especially if they are members of a targeted group.

@AllyChaseBofa - I think Taxing Matters gave you a reasonable response, if one goes on the assumption that the current checks & balances operate as they were designed to. Whether they do or not will remain to be seen. You may want to hope for the best while planning for the worst. Best wishes.

 

[Bali Hai Again]

There is only one way not to be affected by one’s legal or illegal alien status and that is to immigrate to this country LEGALLY. That would seem relatively easy to understand especially for people helping others on a legal website. As for those using the “singling out political opponents to deport them scare tactic“ I say this: The election is over and you LOST.

 

[AlmostThere]

There is only one way not to be affected by one’s legal or illegal alien status and that is to immigrate to this country LEGALLY. That would seem relatively easy to understand especially for people helping others on a legal website. As for those using the “singling out political opponents to deport them scare tactic“ I say this: The election is over and you LOST.

Except that Trump has been speaking about denaturalizing citizens.

 

[Bali Hai Again]

Except that Trump has been speaking about denaturalizing citizens.

Denaturalizing ILLEGAL citizens. You may want to go back and correct your post.

 

[Zigner]

Denaturalizing ILLEGAL citizens. You may want to go back and correct your post.

What is an "illegal citizen?"