October 1, 2021- Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer wants to know: "What if I told you that every time you write a check, swipe your credit card or deposit money into your bank account you had to report it to government?"
Congressman Luetkemeyer and Congressman Sam Graves both sent emails today regarding a new IRS requirement that banks report transactions for bank accounts with more than very minimal activity in a year.
"The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has no business snooping through our bank accounts—but that’s exactly what they’re trying to do. Buried deep within the Administration’s proposed budget is a sneaky little provision that would require banks large and small to report all transaction data for every bank account with more than $600 of deposits or withdrawals in a year", said Congressman Sam Graves.
Graves continues, "That’s virtually every American’s bank account. That not only places a huge reporting burden on small community banks, but it’s a huge invasion of our privacy. The IRS’s job is to collect taxes, not collect every piece of private financial data from every American they can."
"That’s why I voted yesterday to finally put this crazy idea to bed. Sadly, many of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle don’t see things the same way and voted against prohibiting the IRS from collecting the private financial data from virtually every American citizen." Congressmen Graves continued.
Congressmen Luetkemeyer believes that this is a top priority of the President and that he is working hard to get it done.
Luetkemeyer, a former banker, also notes not only is this an invasion on the freedom of the people but also believes this plan is not practical. Luetkemeyer states that financial institutions do not have the technology to be able to perform the tracking of thousands and even millions, of transactions each day.
"I’m not sure what world they’re living in, but this isn’t and shouldn’t be a partisan issue. I think virtually every American can agree that the IRS shouldn’t be sweeping up data on every financial transaction between law-abiding Americans." said Congressmen Graves.
Graves continued, "Quite frankly, I don’t trust them to keep our private financial data secure. After all, they don’t have the best track record of doing that. They just had a major leak in July and they still haven’t gotten to the bottom of that. I can’t imagine how devastating a leak like that would be if they had a huge database containing almost every American’s bank account information. They can’t even seem to get people’s refunds out the door from earlier this year. The number of folks I’m helping navigate the IRS bureaucracy continues to grow and I’d be glad to help you too if you’re having an issue with them. That said, they need to actually do the job they are supposed to be doing, and not be entertaining the idea of additional duties like snooping on our bank accounts."
Both Congressmen said they will fight hard to defeat this ill-conceived provision in the currently pending spending bills.
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