Advocacy News – September 30, 2021
The American Families Plan (AFP) proposed by the Biden Administration includes a provision requiring banks and credit unions to report virtually all their customers’ bank account information and activity to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) beginning in 2023. Specifically, the provision demands financial institutions report every transaction of $600 or more in both personal and business accounts to the IRS, regardless of the customers’ consent. Under the guise of cracking down on tax evasion committed by high-income earners, the IRS will have access to a plethora of private information from taxpayers across the country – no matter the individual’s tax bracket.
According to the Biden Administration, this invasion of privacy will decrease the amount of tax evasion committed by high-income earners, supposedly bringing in $700 billion of federal revenue within the next decade – an amount necessary to help pay the $1.8 trillion price tag of the AFP. However, does a $600 threshold for transactions truly target high-income earners committing tax evasion, or is this more overreach into the lives of all taxpayers, especially low-income and middle-class individuals?
Requiring more taxpayer information from our banks and credit unions is not the answer. The provision places our financial institutions in an incredibly compromising position with their customers, as it discourages individuals from banking and requires financial institutions to carry the load of the new requirement, without the necessary resources or funding.
Currently, this provision is included in the AFP, but not in the budget proposal constructed by the U.S. House of Representatives, also known as the Building Back Better Act. Join the Michigan Chamber of Commerce in OPPOSING this initiative. This governmental overreach threatens the privacy of customers and demands additional resources on Michigan’s financial institutions without the supporting revenue.
Learn more and make your voice heard at banklocally.org/privacy.
If you have any questions, contact Leah Robinson at lrobinson@michamber.com.