The IRS has a bold, brand new power. It can take away your passport

Here’s a fact from the last month of the year that I bet you didn’t even know. Our government has made a major change to the way it aims to collect taxes.

Buried, no submerged deep in the transportation bill passed by Congress in December was a bold, brand new power given to the IRS. If you have a federal tax debt amounting to $50,000 or more, starting this month, the IRS can get your passport cancelled by sending a message to the State Department to do so. And guess what? That $50,000 includes penalties and interest.

Yes, people should pay our government what they owe, especially if they want to leave the country. But given the mistakes the IRS has already made in wrongfully emptying bank accounts and seizing assets, does anyone really think it’s okay for unaccountable, unelected bureaucrats to seize passports? That they should have the power to block a basic freedom – the freedom of movement?

The new IRS law can be a big pain in the neck, since the federal government is also moving to enact a new identification card to supplant state identification (which is usually a drivers’ license). That means in the interim is that travelers could be forced to use their passports at the airport check-in counter even for domestic travel.

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