Lost in the shuffle of all the potential revenue-raising proposals being put forward by Democrats to pay for legislation that could end up costing taxpayers more than $5 trillion is a provision that would drastically expand the federal government’s power to monitor Americans’ finances. In light of Uncle Sam’s failures to responsibly safeguard — and tendency to sometimes abuse — the powers he already has over your wallet, giving him even further authority to snoop is a recipe for disaster.
The provision in question would require all types of financial institutions to report gross inflows and outflows from any account with a cash flow of $600 or more over the course of the year. In other words, it proposed to give the IRS details on almost every financial account, be it a traditional checking account, a savings account, or an investment account.
This would represent a massive compliance burden for all but especially for smaller financial institutions, which would be required to report this information on an annual basis. Perhaps even more importantly, it would be an unprecedented intrusion on Americans’ financial privacy.
Of course, you may be thinking this is a problem for tax cheats and deadbeats, not an upstanding citizen such as yourself. You pay your taxes every year, following the letter of the law to the best of your ability. Unfortunately, this proposal could still cost you — quite literally.