By Nancy Thorner -
Per an article published in The Wall Street Journal on Oct. 4, 2021, The IRS Wants to Look at Your Bank Account, the IRS plans to review every account above a $600 balance, or with more than $600 of transactions in a year. Every American with a job's bank accounts could get looked over. A group of 41 industry groups recently warned congressional leaders that the plan “is not remotely targeted” to detect major tax avoidance.
The bigger threat of giving the IRS access to the details of your bank account is that politicians will eventually find a way to control how you save and spend your own money. This is a bad idea that deserves to die.
$80 billion hand-out to IRA
According to a new report from The New York Times, President Joe Biden is reportedly seeking an $80 billion handout to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), to help the government agency increase the number of audits it does on high-income earners and seek out revenue that both individuals and corporations are “hiding” from the United States government. Excerpts from article:
The Biden administration hopes to raise around $700 billion from the tax enforcement effort, which the president hopes will offset the cost of his multi-trillion-dollar infrastructure plan, set to be unveiled this week.
The White House hopes to pair an increased IRS enforcement effort with new “disclosure requirements” designed to force small business owners and wealthy individuals to fork over cash they might have otherwise kept for themselves.
President Biden, in an effort to pay for his ambitious economic agenda, is expected to propose –spending bill already includes $80 billion for the IRS to hire thousands of new staffers — giving the Internal Revenue Service an extra $80 billion and more authority over the next 10 years to help crack down on tax evasion by high-earners and large corporations, according to two people familiar with the plan,” the NY Times reported Tuesday. “The additional money and enforcement power will accompany new disclosure requirements for people who own businesses that are not organized as corporations and for other wealthy people who could be hiding income from the government.
The Times points out that the $80 billion grant is more than a 60% boost in funding to the IRS, and it is on top of a “discretionary budget request for the IRS” that “already included an extra $1.2 billion—a 10.4% bump over the previous year,” per Forbes.
Pelosi doubles down on IRA looking into bank transactions
As reported on October 12, 2021 by Joseph Lord, a Congressional reporter for The Epoch Times who focuses on the Democrats, Pelosi Doubles Down On IRA looking Into Bank Transactions.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has doubled down on a provision in the Democrats’ multi-trillion-dollar reconciliation bill that would allow the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to see information on all Americans’ bank transactions totaling $600 or more. Republicans and banks have raised the alarm about the provision, reporting that their constituents and clients are deeply concerned about the proposal.
Since the introduction of their reconciliation bill, Democrats have insisted that the bill will not add to the debt or the deficit, claiming that all new spending in the bill will be paid for.
Republicans and banks have reported hearing concerns from their constituents and customers over the plan.
Pelosi digs in her heels
During a recent press conference, a reporter cited these concerns to Pelosi, asking her if the new IRS scheme would stay in the bill.
“Yes,” Pelosi curtly responded.
She was also asked what she would say to Americans concerned about the proposal.
Pelosi dismissed these concerns as anecdotal, doubting whether people actually had serious concerns about the plan.“With all due respect, the plural of anecdote is not data,” she snapped.
She went further and defended the proposal. “If people are breaking the law and not paying their taxes, one way to track them is through the banking measure,” she explained.
McCarthy and McConnell stand firm
McCarthy has argued passionately against the bill as a whole, and he joined the private sector in blasting the proposed measure.
The minority leader told reporters, “While [Democrats] grandstand about taxing the rich, they have created a new IRS surveillance program designed to target low- and mid-income earners.”
“Especially,” McCarthy added, “the program would target “[those who] rely on tips to make [a] living.”
Often, tips are given in cash, making them untraceable by the IRS. Under the new program, the IRS would be able to track these tips through transaction data.
He continued, President Biden wants to hire 1,000s of new IRS bureaucrats and give them the authority to snoop into your bank account to monitor every single transaction you make: no warrants, no permissions, no limits.
The California Republican concluded, This surveillance program crosses a line, it’s un-American.” He promised that “Republicans will do everything possible to stop it before it ever gets off the ground.
In the Senate, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has also blasted the plan.
They want to finance their spending spree by effectively treating every ordinary American as if they were under IRS audit,” said McConnell. “I must have forgotten when the president campaigned on giving everybody their own audit!
Rep. Kevin Brady point out the tax gap
Rep. Brady, the top Republican on Ways and Means, points out that the tax gap is murkier than Democrats will admit.
“There are three big issues here: One, by raising business rates by a third, we’re creating an economic surrender to China, Russia, Europe, Canada, and others.
“Secondly, a lot of these tax increases are going to land on small businesses.
And third, the President clearly breaks his pledge by taxing those below $400,000 [in yearly income].”
CLICK HERE to watch the full interview
Key Takeaways:
Democrats’ Tax Hikes Will Fall on the Middle Class and Small Businesses
- The left-leaning Tax Policy Center found that Biden’s tax plan will raise taxes on 75 percent of middle-class families next year, rising to 95 percent of middle-class families by 2031 – contradicting his pledge not to raise taxes on middle-class Americans.
- The Joint Committee on Taxation says that within 10 years of a corporate tax increase, 66.3 percent of the corporate tax burden would be borne by lower- and middle-income taxpayers.
- Studies show that the capital gains tax alone would shrink the economy, and the left-leaning Tax Policy Center finds that Biden’s proposal raises taxes far past the amount necessary to maximize revenue. Past analyses by the Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation agree.
- Democrats’ second death tax will destroy more than 1 million jobs over the next 12 years, slash paychecks for workers, and shrink our economy by $100 billion over the next decade.
Not only do Democrats wish to remake the economy, but they wish to remake this nation as well.
