Washington, D.C. – Congressman Darin LaHood (IL-18) joined his House Ways and Means Committee Republican colleagues last week in sending a letter to Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen expressing privacy concerns over President Biden’s proposal to surveil American’s private bank transactions.
In the letter, the members wrote:
“We are skeptical of the need for this dangerous expansion of IRS oversight into the daily lives of Americans, have reason to believe the true targets are farmers, families, and small businesses, and question the IRS’s capacity to protect this unprecedented amount of personal banking information.
“We recognize that even $10,000 de minimis annual threshold would sweep up the bank information of nearly every American with a job. The Administration’s proposal has rightly been criticized for its near-universal scope, its significant risk to individual privacy, and its dangerous empowerment of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
“The Administration’s proposal has rightly been criticized for its near-universal scope, its significant risk to individual privacy, and its dangerous empowerment of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).”
Rep. 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.
You can read the full letter here.
Rep. 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.
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