President Donald J. Trump signed the Taxpayer First Act into law, which includes 9th District Congressman Doug Collins’ Clyde-Hirsch-Sowers RESPECT Act.
Congressman Collins remarked:
For too long, hardworking individuals and small business owners—like Andrew Clyde—have fallen victim as the IRS has abused civil asset forfeiture. With the RESPECT Act finally becoming law, law-abiding citizens can rest easy knowing they no longer have to fight the federal government just to prove their innocence.
Collins reintroduced the RESPECT Act earlier this year to protect innocent individuals and small business owners from IRS abuse and ensure their assets are not wrongly seized under civil asset forfeiture policies. The House unanimously passed the RESPECT Act—as part of the Taxpayer First Act—in April 2019.
The RESPECT Act was inspired in part by Andrew Clyde, a U.S. Navy veteran, owner of Clyde Armory, and resident of Georgia’s Ninth District. In April of 2013, the IRS seized nearly $940,000 from Clyde’s bank account without charging him with any crime, simply because he was regularly depositing several thousand dollars of cash from his business.