Benjamin Cox
A local Congressman is not having any of a recent Biden Administration proposal to surveil American bank accounts and online transactions.
18th District Congressman Darin LaHood joined Republican colleagues on the House Ways & Means Committee in sending a letter to Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen expressing privacy concerns of IRS oversight of total debits and credits equal at least to $600 including deposited paychecks or money transferred from finance apps like Cash App or PayPal —banks would have to report those figures to the IRS.
The Treasury is proposing that financial institutions to annually report the total amount of money that went in and out of bank, loan and investment accounts if those accounts hold a value of at least $600, or if the total is at least $600 in a year. The proposal is due to the IRS showing a tax gap of $166 billion per year between the tax owed by businesses (not counting large corporations) and the tax actually paid. The document says requiring comprehensive reporting on money flowing in and out of accounts “will enhance the effectiveness of IRS enforcement measures and encourage voluntary compliance.”
Republicans feel that this engenders a dangerous empowerment to the IRS to oversee any person’s finances with a job in the country. LaHood and his colleagues also pressed Secretary Yellen to address a number of unanswered questions clarifying that the IRS will not seek transactional-level data on personal and business bank accounts.
LaHood is also a cosponsor of a bill that would prohibit the Biden Administration’s plans to turn local banks into chapters of the IRS. He is also a cosponsor of the Tax Gap Reform and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Enforcement Act, which allows for a better understanding of the tax gap, provides smarter enforcement, ensures the IRS uses all of the resources at its disposal, and addresses the expertise gap at the IRS.
