Maryland Dairy Farmers Take On IRS To Get Their Money Back

by Austin Petersen

By Casey Harper

A pair of humble Maryland dairy farmers are taking on the IRS, and now some members of Congress have joined the fight.

Members of the House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee sent a letter Wednesday to Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew calling on the IRS to give back money the agency wrongly seized from two Maryland dairy farmers.

The IRS forfeited, or took ownership of, Randy and Karen Sowers’ $29,500 based on highly criticized structuring laws. These laws make it a crime to make multiple cash deposits just under $10,000.

The laws were originally intended to catch money launderers making small deposits to avoid government detection but have since been abused.

Randy said his wife made the deposits under $10,000 because the bank teller told her it would require less paperwork.

“We didn’t do anything wrong, but the IRS took our money anyway,” Randy said in a statement. “I hope the IRS does the same for everyone they took money from, and not just for me and Karen.”

A North Carolina convenience store owner with the same structuring violation had his $100,000 returned by the IRS. The Sowers are hoping for the same fate.

“We all learn in kindergarten: If you’ve taken something that doesn’t belong to you, give it back,” Robert Everett Johnson, a lawyer for the Institute for Justice, which represents the Sowers, said in a statement. “The public, Congress, everyone understands that what happened to Randy and Karen was wrong. The question is, will the IRS do the right thing and give the money back?”

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Austin Petersen is a homegrown Missourian with a lifelong passion for liberty. He grew up on a horse farm in Peculiar, Missouri and went on to attend Missouri State University, graduating with a degree in the Fine Arts. After developing a career in media in both New York City and Washington, D.C., he returned to Kansas City, MO, the city he now calls home. In 2016, Petersen appeared on the national stage as a candidate for president of the United States. He took second place in the crowded Libertarian primary behind Governor Gary Johnson and ahead of cyber security maverick John McAfee. During his campaign, Petersen earned many high-profile conservative endorsements, including Mary Matalin, Erick Erickson and Leon Wolf of RedState.com. Petersen also brings decades of professional experience in a wide variety of fields, from content production and media to business and political activism. He is the owner and chief executive of Stonegait LLC, a consulting firm specializing in photo and video services. He was also the director of production at FreedomWorks and an associate producer for Judge Andrew Napolitano’s show “Freedom Watch” on the Fox Business Network. Additionally, Petersen has a national following as a commentator and professional pundit. He is the founder of The Libertarian Republic, a powerful online news source for the public that receives an average of 1 million unique visits monthly and whose podcast, The Freedom Report, receives an average of one million monthly downloads. He is also a frequent contributor on television, appearing on Fox News, Fox Business, CNN, MSNBC and on dozens of local radio shows.

1 comment

additional reading December 4, 2023 at 3:13 am

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