An important part of President Joe Biden’s plan to raise revenue to pay for his trillions of dollars in new federal spending is now under fire from industry associations across the country.
The Biden administration has clarified its plan to strengthen the IRS audit by expanding the agency’s funding and power.
Biden’s latest proposal would require banks to hand over to Internal Revenue Service bank account information for all accounts with more than $ 600.
In a sharp step back from the proposal, more than 40 industry associations, some representing entire industries or economic sectors, signed a letter to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., And minority leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., Sounding the alarm about the plan.
The letter, which includes support from several banking coalitions, urges Congress to reject this claim, saying it violates customers’ privacy and would create an incredibly expensive and detailed reporting requirement for banks.
“While the stated goal of this huge data collection is to uncover tax evasion from the wealthy, this proposal is not externally targeted to that purpose or the population involved,” the letter said.
“In addition to the significant concerns about privacy, it would create a huge responsibility for all stakeholders by requiring the collection of financial information for almost any American without a proper explanation of how the IRS will store, protect and use this huge array of personal financial information.
“We believe that this program is costly for all parties, not fit for purpose, and full of potential for unintended and seriously negative consequences.”
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The groups argue that it would target “almost any American” and question whether the IRS could keep this information safe from hackers and bad actors.
The undersigned associations, representing a cross-section of economic and business interests, are writing to express our strong opposition to a proposal being considered as part of the reconciliation package that would establish an expansive new tax information regime that would directly affect almost all U.S. and small business with an account in a financial institution, “the letter said.”
This proposal would create significant operational and reputation challenges for financial institutions, increase tax preparation costs for individuals and small businesses, and create serious financial concerns about privacy. We urge members to oppose any efforts to promote this ill-advised new reporting regime.“
Some reports indicate that Democrats are hoping to raise the $ 600 threshold but to no avail.
Biden proposed giving the IRS an extra $ 80 billion earlier this year for auditing, saying the agency would more than repay those funds. The House Democrats have so far indicated that they plan to comply with this request.
“There’s a 99 percent compliance rate on salaries – because employees get their income reported to the IRS,” reads a fact sheet handed out by the White House to lawmakers to sell them on the plan.
‘But the super-wealthy who get their income from unreported sources are able to hide their income and avoid paying the tax they owe. In fact, the top 1 percent each year choose not to pay more than $ 160 billion in taxes. ”
Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee have scheduled a virtual roundtable Sunday entitled “Weaponization of the IRS: A Sordid History and the Need for Taxpayer Protections” to discuss these concerns.
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“The meeting will highlight the congressional Democrats’ efforts to nearly double the size of the IRS with a massive fiscal increase, while doing nothing to counter the IRS’s weapons, including the massive, criminal leak of taxpayer information to ProPublica in June this year,” the Texas Republican rep said. Kevin Brady’s office.
This is not the only business criticism that has been levied at the expense of $ 3.5 trillion in recent days.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce officially condemned the bill this week, calling it an “existential threat” to the economy.
“This conciliation proposal is, in fact, 100 bills in one, representing all the great ideas of government that have never been able to pass in Congress,” said the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, President, and CEO Suzanne Clark.
“The bill is an existential threat to America’s fragile economic recovery and future prosperity. We do not find sustainable or practical solutions in a massive bill that equals more than twice as many budgets as all 50 states.
The success of the bipartisan infrastructure negotiations provides a much better model for how Congress should deal with America’s problems.”
