Ask AP: Stimulus Money Refused, US Base Opposed

John Byron

Dennis, Mass.

___

The time to act, I'm afraid, was before your father ran up his tax bill.

When someone owes back taxes, the Internal Revenue Service can step in and access any account the delinquent taxpayer could access, including joint accounts, said Marc Dombrowski, a Buffalo, N.Y.-based tax consultant and enrolled agent — someone who represents taxpayers before the IRS.

Commonly called the "kiddie levy" because it frequently involves the savings accounts of younger children, the rule applies even if adult children can prove they made the deposits and paid taxes on the accounts in question.

In a precedent-setting case, the Supreme Court allowed the IRS to take money a tax-delinquent couple's two kids earned on their paper route, because it was in accounts held jointly with the father, and their grandmother's savings, which was in a joint account with the mother.

"It doesn't matter how the money got there," Dombrowski said. "What matters is, it's an account linked with his Social Security number. It's infected."