IRS Seizes Girl’s $694 for Dad’s Debt

Shannon Burns, a hard-working 10-year-old who earns her money by collecting aluminum cans and doing her chores faithfully, is mightily annoyed at the Internal Revenue Service for seizing her $694 bank account.

The IRS says it grabbed the account because Shannon’s father, Kevin Burns, owes $1,000 in back taxes. A spokesman said the girl can have her money back if she and her father can prove it is hers.

“They took it. The IRS took my money,” Shannon said. “I got it from collecting cans, from doing my homework. I got it for Christmas. I got some from my dad and some from my grandmother and some from my great-grandparents.”

She is saving her money for piano lessons.

When Shannon opened her account, in August, 1984, Burns, a carpenter, put his Social Security number and name on the account with hers because she is a minor.

“A real snotty lady at the IRS told me over the phone that that gives them the right to take her money,” Burns said.

Chips Maurer, a spokesman for the IRS in San Jose, said, however, that if Burns comes in and shows that the money is really his daughter’s, Shannon can get her account back.

“We don’t make a habit of levying kids’ accounts,” Maurer said. “He’s got to come in with some proof that the account is his daughter’s.”