The IRS wants to spy on your bank records. The last time we witnessed grotesque malfeasance by the IRS was back in 2012-13, when Lois Lerner oversaw the shameful foot-dragging on approving tax-exempt classifications; she "became the central figure in the 2013 IRS targeting controversy in the targeting of politically-aligned groups, either denying them tax-exempt status outright or delaying that status until they could no longer take effective part in the 2012 election." I would not trust any of the claims being made to support this newest plan. Here's Sabrina Eaton at cleveland.com:
A measure that would require
financial institutions to report transactions to the Internal Revenue Service
on any bank account with a balance of more than $600 has upset Ohio’s community
bankers and Republican legislators, who are trying to get the provision removed
from budget legislation that’s being written in Congress.
The Treasury Department says the proposal that’s
drawing objections and others that would require that more information be sent
to the IRS will reduce tax evasion and improve collection of taxes that are
already due, generating an estimated $460 billion in tax revenue over ten
years. It’s being suggested as a revenue offset for the $3.5 trillion
reconciliation bill that the Biden administration and Democrats who control
Congress are drafting to spend more money on programs that they say would
improve health care, education, infrastructure and counter climate change, among
other things.
The Treasury Department says the
extra data is being sought to target high earners who underreport their tax
liabilities.
What a crock. Improve
education and ... good grief … climate change?
Targeting those who “underreport their tax liabilities”?
Community Bankers Association of
Ohio CEO Bob Palmer argues the proposal constitutes a “strong invasion of
privacy,” and expressed doubt the data will help IRS catch wealthy tax evaders.
He argues that people who have $600 in the bank typically are not wealthy
individuals, and says his organization and its counterparts on the federal
level are “pushing back at the administration and saying this makes no sense to
us.”
. . .
A statement from Gibbs called the
proposal “the type of big-brother style intrusion into private information we
should all be worried about.
“Americans should not have to worry
about the IRS looking over their shoulder whenever they loan money to family
members or purchase Christmas presents for their children,” said Gibbs. “There
is simply no need for the IRS to be collecting this information, and I urge the
IRS to abandon their mass surveillance plans.”
Read the full report here.
# # #
