The IRS has a plan to catch tax cheats, and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen thinks its a terrific idea! But do not call it spying.
What is this $600 plan from the IRS you ask? This:
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig pressed lawmakers Wednesday to give the Internal Revenue Service more information about taxpayers’ bank accounts, as the Biden administration tries to salvage its struggling tax-compliance proposal.
In letters to lawmakers, the administration officials again asked Congress to require banks to report annual inflows and outflows from bank accounts with at least $600 or at least $600 worth of transactions, a proposal aimed at letting the IRS target its audits more effectively. It would generate about $460 billion over a decade to cover the costs of Democrats’ planned expansion of the social safety net and climate-change policies, according to the administration.
Think about this for a few minutes. Under this rule, banks would be required to report every single account that has either $600 or more in it, AND report every transaction that is at least $600. Then the IRS will decide if they need to run an audit of that person’s bank account. This is the IRS idea to manipulate the system and take more money out of all of our pockets. Furthermore, while we do have to pay taxes (which I dislike intensely), there is absolutely zero reason why the IRS should be monitoring all our bank accounts 24/7.
Understandably, people are pushing back at this proposal.
Missouri state treasurer Scott Fitzpatrick asserted, “I will stand up to this government overreach and protect the privacy of those account holders. Turning over their transaction data to the federal government is illegal under Missouri law and a gross violation of Missourians’ expectation of privacy when it comes to their personal financial records. I will not turn this information over to the IRS voluntarily and will fight in court to block any attempt by the federal government to compel my office to comply with this mandate.”
Arkansas state treasurer Dennis Milligan echoed to the Daily Mail, “It would be absolutely absurd for me to turn over their private account data regarding money they’re saving for their loved ones’ future to the IRS, and I do not intend to do so. I would do all I could in my role to not comply with this proposal.”
As others are pointing out, the immense burden this would put on small hometown banks, community banks, and credit unions would be staggering and impossible to maintain. Besides, why does the IRS need to know about purchasing $600 worth of flowers for your daughter’s wedding? The simple answer is, they don’t. Senator Cynthia Lummis from my home state of Wyoming took Yellen to task a few days ago.
Senator Lummis is absolutely correct. Americans are not government subjects. Period.
Yet Janet Yellen has been making the rounds trying to sell this crap. Even then, when confronted by Senator Lummis, her response was that this isn’t reporting detailed transactions and since the banks already report interest accrued on accounts, what’s the big deal?
Boy howdy, Yellen really knows how to pedal the horseshit. Since her first gambit on this $600 IRS thing didn’t work, she’s now trying to gaslight us into believing that this is not the spying you are looking for. Yeah, about those spy droids, when it walks like a duck, and talks like a duck…
This $600 IRS tax proposal absolutely WILL be an intrusion into our bank accounts. It absolutely IS about tracking all American’s financial transactions.
Yet, last night, Janet Yellen decided to drop this whopper while talking with CBS Norah O’Donnell.
“There’s a lot of tax fraud and cheating that’s going on.” Treasury @SecYellen tells @NorahODonnell the proposed $600 IRS reporting requirement for banks is “absolutely not” a way for the government to peek into American’s pocketbooks but to hold billionaires accountable. pic.twitter.com/M3VKOhdtSu
— CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) October 12, 2021
On what freaking planet does she live on??!! How the hell does she think that tracking any of mine or your $600 transactions will hold millionaires and billionaires accountable for THEIR taxes?
“All that’s involved in this proposal is a few aggregate numbers about bank accounts,” she said, “the amount that was received in the course of the year, the amount that went out in the course of a year.”
This would allow the IRS to be flagged to audit someone with an income of $10,000 suddenly having “$3 million go out of their checking account.”
Well, that certainly makes it ok doesn’t it? Janet, this is not Miami Vice, not by a long shot. The IRS plan is for ALL accounts with $600 transactions to be monitored and reported to the IRS, and trying to sell the idea that ‘it’s just a few accounts’ is a trainload of manure. Evidently, since Diane Feinstein’s idea of taxing the mega rich didn’t work, this is the new plan.
Inflation continues to surge, over 5.4% higher than last year, Yellen wants an unlimited debt ceiling and thinks letting the IRS monitor every transaction of $600 or more will catch billionaire tax cheaters.
Yellen, however, noted that there is a projected tax gap of $7 trillion over the next decade — a reality that keeps the IRS from collecting “what we believe are owed.” [Emphasis Added]
That’s it right there. Yellen wants this intrusive spy program in place because the federal government is OWED that money. The money we make isn’t ours according the Biden Administration, it’s theirs.
.@PressSec: "The president wants to make fundamental change in our economy." pic.twitter.com/fTMS7bW2F7
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) October 12, 2021
That’s where this $600 spy proposal is coming from. They want their money and will do anything to get it.
Feature Photo Credit: Janet Yellen caricature by DonkeyHotey via Flickr, cropped and modified
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JAW3 says: David Asman on FBN hit a big nail on the head when he deduced that the feds are trying to go into data mining and using the data for a lot of other purposes than tax collection. Gun owners will be directly targeted in that scenario not just the banks who refuse to do their banking for their businesses.
GWB says: Yep. This is Operation Chokepoint writ very, very small.
Hate_me says: Next bank I rob, it’s all going into the mattress and being laundered through the local gas station by petty purchases.
If they’re watching my paychecks, I’m not touching my paychecks. Nor am I putting it in an interest-gathering account. Let them watch it collect dust. I’m gonna start stealing. Cash is king, once again.
Chris says: She is a LIAR
Period
Cameron says: “There’s a lot of tax fraud and cheating that’s going on.”
Then use the laws and means you have at your disposal instead of demanding an expansion of power.
talgus says: How about all the citizens subject to this rule get to see the same IRS data collected on ALL FEDERAL EMPLOYEES. Including the IRS. and Yellen. The IRS data collect on me will be seen by every political employee of the Fed, so fair is fair.
alanstorm says: “This would allow the IRS to be flagged to audit someone with an income of $10,000 suddenly having “$3 million go out of their checking account.””
That’s about (assuming $0 to start with, given the Biden* administrations great efforts to increase the cost of everything) 5000 $600 deposits. Ya think someone might noticw?
Her argument is bogus. If you’re looking at $600 and up, that’s a really low bar for millionaires.
She argued elsewhere that it’s OK because the IRS already receives info on some transactions already. According to liberals, this makes sense. The only thing it says to me is that the government already collects too much financial information.
GWB says: They already have the ability to see that person suddenly having $3 million go in or out of their account. The banks are already required to squeal on transactions over $10,000*. There’s the “already receives info on some transactions she mentioned. There is absolutely NO justification for this idea using that analogy.
(* Which, BTW, given inflation and such, would be transactions of $125,000 nowadays, if indexed.)
Skillyboo says: Will politicians and their families, who’ve they’ve set up in phony non profits and advisory companies tied to whatever committee they’re assigned to, be subject to the same rules? I doubt it
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GWB says: But do not call it spying.
Well, they’re right, it’s not spying! It’s called a warrantless search. Which pretty much should require impeachment (at the least) in my book.
Yeah, about those spy droids, when it walks like a duck Fourth Amendment violation, and talks like a duck Fourth Amendment violation…
FIFY
there is a projected tax gap of $7 trillion over the next decade
Patently untrue. There is no tax gap. There is a spending gap.
Again, I will call for an amendment to the constitution that will only allow Congress to spend funds equivalent to the previous year’s intake of receipts. It would be suspended for a declared war, but the debt incurred would be required to be repaid in an amount of time equal to the length of the war, and would count against the total receipts from the previous year.
GWB says: Dangit. I got the strong inside the strike on that second occurrence of duck/Fourth Amendment violation.
[…] Initially, the Biden administration pitched the stupid idea requiring banks report annual withdrawals or deposits of more than $600 to the IRS. In other words, snoop on everyone. […]
[…] So the IRS is going to be handed a specific list of people to target with this tax? It’s the IRS and the federal government. This tax on unrealized capital gains will go after […]
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