WASHINGTON—While the proposal has been dropped after one congressional committee’s vote on a bill, both CUNA and NAFCU have joined dozens of organizations in calling on Congress to continue oppose any efforts to increase Internal Revenue Service reporting requirements by financial institutions.
Language requiring increased reporting has been discussed as part of House infrastructure legislation, but the House Ways and Means Committee passed the bill last week without including it.
CUNA, NAFCU and the other groups have objected strongly to proposed provisions requiring financial institutions to track and submit to the IRS information on the inflows and outflows of every account above a de minimis threshold of $600 during the year, including breakdowns for cash
“While the stated goal of this vast data collection is to uncover tax dodging by the wealthy, this proposal is not remotely targeted to that purpose or that population,” states the joint letter to House leadership. “In addition to the significant privacy concerns, it would create tremendous liability for all affected parties by requiring the collection of financial information for nearly every American without proper explanation of how the IRS will store, protect, and use this enormous trove of personal financial information.”
Separate Letter Sent
A separate joint letter written to House and Senate leaders cites recent polling by Morning Consult showing two-thirds of voters (67%) oppose proposals to transfer more banking data to the IRS.
“Opposition is bipartisan, with more than half of voters (53%) strongly opposed and only 22% supportive,” the letter reads. “Indiscriminate, blanket data collection would amount to a troubling effort to profile American taxpayers based on account characteristics without grounds for suspicion of tax evasion. Such profiling is inappropriate in all law enforcement contexts.”