The Biden administration wants to give the IRS more surveillance power, supposedly in the name of stopping tax evasion. But the plan is unclear and has met with major opposition.
First, the proposal is vague on what would actually be monitored. CBS News reported on Oct. 14 that bank accounts with $600 and individual $600 purchases could be monitored. There was an understandable backlash against the $600 threshold, and it was raised to $10,000.
But what exactly does the threshold mean?
Does it mean that any account with at least $10,000 will have all its deposits and withdrawals monitored? Does it mean that any individual withdrawal or deposit of at least $10,000 will be monitored? Or does it mean that you will be monitored if all your withdrawals and deposits add up to $10,000 in the course of a year?
There haven’t been any clear answers.
Republican Rep. Dan Meuser of Pennsylvania seems to think the threshold means that if all your transactions add up to $10,000 in one year, the IRS will spy on your finances. According to Meuser, if you spend an average of $28 per day, that means you — along with nearly every American — will be monitored.
The Democrats IRS Bank Surveillance Scheme is lunacy.
It is threatening the privacy of all Americans and will raise costs on our smaller financial institutions. pic.twitter.com/sBLHuu6k1K
— Congressman Dan Meuser (@RepMeuser) October 27, 2021
Under the revised proposal, banks would have to report only on accounts with at least $10,000 in annual deposits or withdrawals, not counting deposits from paychecks or government benefits,” the outlet reported.
The Treasury Department did confirm that the threshold would not include paychecks and federal benefits.
“Under the current proposal, financial accounts with money flowing in and out that totals less than $10,000 annually are not subject to any additional reporting,” the department said in an Oct. 19 fact sheet.
“Further, when computing this threshold, the new, tailored proposal carves out wage and salary earners and federal program beneficiaries, such that only those accruing other forms of income in opaque ways are a part of the reporting regime.”
Regardless of what exactly the $10,000 threshold means, there are massive problems with this surveillance plan even in theory.
www.westernjournal.com/spending-just-28-day-make-irs-spy-dems-bank-surveillance-scheme/
h/t Coastie Patriot