IRS, Janet Yellen Press Lawmakers to Push ‘Tax Compliance Agenda’ — Banks to Report Deposits, Withdrawals of $600

On Wednesday, U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) commissioner Charles Rettig and Janet Yellen, the Treasury secretary, urged lawmakers to give the IRS permission to report annual inflows and outflows from American bank accounts. Regardless of tax liability, financial institutions across the country will have to report accounts with at least $600 worth of transactions or more. The proposal stems from the Treasury’s “American Families Plan Tax Compliance Agenda.”

Using Twitter, United States president Joe Biden told the public that if a citizen made under $400,000 his administration won’t raise taxes. “To be clear,” Biden tweeted on Tuesday, “If you make under 400k, my Build Back Better Agenda won’t raise your taxes a cent. Not only that — you’ll get a historic tax cut, and see lower costs on things like child care and health care. And all of it will be paid for by the wealthy paying their fair share,” Biden’s tweet added.

The following day Janet Yellen and Charles Rettig “pressed lawmakers” about giving the IRS more access to annual inflow and outflow information about taxpayer bank accounts. The Wall Street Journal tweeted about the story saying that the “Biden administration [is trying] to salvage its struggling tax-compliance proposal.” The publication’s article about the matter also went into more detail about the “American Families Plan Tax Compliance Agenda” and explained that “House Democrats didn’t include a bank account reporting provision in their tax bill.” Other reports confirm “a list of House ‘pay-fors’ did not include the IRS reporting requirement.”

"The American Families Plan Tax Compliance Agenda" on the heels of nation states adopting and legalizing cryptocurrency doesn't seem like a coincidence.

— mαtαd⓿r (@bitOHfunguy) September 9, 2021

Of course, Joe Biden does not mention such matters in his tweets nor does he explain how the American Families Plan tax reform can hurt Americans via capital gains taxes. Biden’s Facebook and Twitter posts also fail to mention the annual inflow and outflow monitoring. The monitoring is clearly an invasion of privacy and the proposal is catching criticism for the attempt.

Author Matt Welch tweeted on September 8: “My latest Reason print column is about how Biden, Elizabeth Warren, and the IRS want to construct a vast surveillance network to track all your financial transactions, under the creepy name of ‘The American Families Plan Tax Compliance Agenda.’ In the report, Welch asks:

What if every one of your noncash financial transactions was automatically reported to a beefed-up, audit-hungry IRS?

The Missouri Bank (TMB) posted a complaint to Facebook about the situation on September 10. “While The Missouri Bank does not normally engage on topics relating to politics, we feel there is an URGENT matter pending in Congress that needs your attention,” TMB said in a Facebook post. “Because we care about you, your finances, and your account(s) with TMB, we want you to know the facts, especially when it relates to concerning developments around public policy that expose your financial privacy.” TMB further adds:

This indiscriminate, comprehensive bank account reporting to the IRS can soon be enacted in Congress and will create an unacceptable invasion of privacy for our customers. So, how does this affect you? If passed, the proposal would require financial institutions, like ours, to report the inflows (deposits) and outflows (withdrawals) of $600 or more, on personal and business accounts to the IRS regardless of customers’ consent.

Of course, many are confused by Biden’s tactics to have the agenda make it so the IRS can spy on individuals with $600, as the billionaire class Democrats attack are not at all concerned about $600. “It claims to increase taxes on Billionaires but I don’t know very many billionaires making $600 deposits or [withdrawals]. I do know a lot of normal hard working people though where that $600 could be their rent money or paycheck,” one individual wrote on Twitter.

What do you think about Joe Biden’s “American Families Plan Tax Compliance Agenda” and Yellen and the IRS pressing for it? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.