Soldier charged for “field loss” a decade later
Defend USA sends us a link to The Blaze about Gerrod Branum of Fairmont, WV, who served in Iraq. Some of his kit was lost when he returned and his commander determined that it was a “field loss”, meaning that it was an unavoidable loss as a result of war and not the soldier’s fault. Well, it seems that the IRS has decided that he still owes them the money and took it out of his refund a decade later;
Fast-forward to 2014, nearly a decade after the incident: Barnum was sent a letter from the IRS notifying him that approximately $1,600 was being withheld from his tax return on account of the missing equipment.
He tried contacting the IRS, but his inquiries have been met with silence so far.
“As a government, you took my money in all aspects for a field loss for my service to my country,” he said. “It is not right. It is wrong and it is immoral.”
Official U.S. Army regulations state Barnum should have been charged within three months of the loss of the equipment.
Yeah, well, that’s why you keep every single bit of paper that the military gives you. If you don’t, it will come back and bite your ass. I extended my enlistment out of AIT for a year for a whopping $2500 bonus. After I served out the year to which I had agreed, some civilian finance wienie at Fort Bragg couldn’t find where I was authorized the bonus and I got a bill for the bonus. I still have every piece of paper since my initial issue inventory because my ass is tooth-mark free.
Category: Big Army
It sounds like he was hit by the Treasury Offset Program, I’d go to them for information on who, when, and why. However, it’s a nasty bureaucracy. If Big Army referred the debt to TOP (likely), it will be tough getting it resolved without supporting documents.
https://www.fms.treas.gov/debt/top.html
Thus I haves BOXES of paper files in my living room, as I keep everything from my career.
Hmmm… maybe I should ga back and see if the IRS owes ME any money from years gone by.
I represented a former federal employee once who was facing the offset program, which would also have been negatively reflected on his credit report. Seems like something is missing from this story, because my guy knew this was coming and hired me. At least in our case, the guy was entitled to some administrative relief of which we took advantage. In the end, the federal agency refused to let us review and inspect the documents pursuant to statute, which I then parlayed into further relief and the guy won.
I keep every scrap of paper that the Army has given me. I still have my LES’s from when I was a PFC and my ADSW orders from when I was in the NG.
Heh, seen this.
In 2005 when we came back from Iraq 1/2 the company was from upstate NY and we wound up with their dufflebags on Long Island. The bags were secured in a locked commo room with Alarm system and only the new Cdr and Readiness NCO has access.
Cue 3 months later all bags gone and the upstaters being charged for their gear (this also Included a KIA’s bags I personally packed). Readiness NCO has a knife from the KIA’s bag on his desk, )Yemak Shemo).
Most of the Guys being charged were now in Afghanistan on ETT teams with no way to even answer the letter demanding return of equipment. No one cared no one listened in our chain
Diamonds and Reports-of-Survey are forever.
As a BDE/DIVARTY S4, my experience was that guys tended to ignore Reports-of-Survey charges/findings until the IRS got involved. There was an appeal process and we could easily make Certificates-of-Recovery if they turned their stuff in. We’d rather have the gear because we never saw the money that was collected.
If the CDR determined it a fields loss, that would have gone forward on a Report of Survey by name. The SM would have a copy of the submitted ROS at best. He would most likely never see the finished outcome, especially if he ETSed after deployment.
This means that someone in the food chain rejected the field loss and then the bill wound up eventually with the IRS.
Or, the Supply Sergeant lied and submitted a Statement of Charges which means “charge him the money”, instead of the ROS. I’ve seen that happen before.
Bullshit! If they were going to charge him, they should have done it 10 years ago.
Pre-Nine Eleven: CA Army Nat Guard supply sergeants would spend hours on a “statement of charges” for something that cost about a dollar.
But when I saw the field loss form for a M1114 Humvee in Iraq for about $145,000…it seemed like that bothered the commander more than the Sgt who was killed and the 3 other Soldiers badly wounded. They didn’t have to fill out as much paper work for the Soldiers.
One of my biggest worries while deployed was being wounded and separated from my gear because the Corps is fucking retarded, all my shit would have been stolen in a heart beat, and they’d charged me for it both financially and punitively.
Thankfully I got lucky.
My less-than-favorite, although not directly related, was when Soldiers did not pay AAFEES. And they come AFTER you; 5$-500$, does not matter.
I used to get all types of delinquent notices from them and hand them out to the boys.
Knew one that ETS’d with about a $1000 debt. Come income tax time, they got (IRS) it.
Funny how that works.
@8.
I have done a bunch of them.
Sucks.
@12; How did they get out without clearing AAFES? I had to before every PCS move and seen guys not get their clearing papers signed before they paid them.
Good question.
I do not know about now, but then they just used to annotate the amount owed and a forwarding address.
At least I think that was how it used to work.
Point being if they did not, then the IRS was still there.
Just a guess.
I mean, how can you prevent an Soldier from PCSing if they owe, lets say, 10k?
And what if they cannot pay it and they have no terminal leave, pay etc. for collateral?
Can you just “keep’ them around?
Honestly I don’t know. I’ve never been in that position or had Soldiers in that position.
Twist, Green Thumb: if it’s a debt relating to the Mil Star Card, that follows them post-ETS. It’s pretty much the same as a delinquent credit card, except they owe it to an organization with ties to Uncle Sam.
Daughter’s first husband pulled that stunt after they split and he ETSed. Let’s just say that the folks running Star Card billing somehow got advised of his new billing address fairly quickly. (smile)
And yeah, the IRS will collect if someone has a debt to a government agency and also has a tax refund coming.
I once relieved a Personnel Man 2nd Class (PN2) because when he reenlisted a sailor, he would open a new service jacket and shitcan the old one with all pertinent info in it. By the time I got to that command, over 200 jackets were involved. This was a dereliction of duty and I got him reduced to PN3. I also advised everyone I reenlisted to keep EVERYTHING AND TO RECORD THE DD214 WITH THEIR COUNTY CLERK. Caps appropriate.
Wanna possibly avoid that debt being taken out of your refund by the Infernal Revenoor Service?? Restructure your tax withholdings so that YOU owe teh gubbment (barely) instead of teh gubbment owing you (i.e., a “refund”).
Just before I got out I borrowed several hundred bucks from my buddies to max out my College Fund. I paid them back but Big Army “lost” the payment receipts. Took me a couple of years to run through the paperwork and get it back.
@18: It’s your money anyways, you should keep it. I try to break even every year or at most owe $100. This year owed $109. With Obamacare the IRS will take any refund if you don’t conform. I don’t plan on it so breaking even becomes even more important. I know they will attach wages or something but that will be harder than just taking the tax return