Reason’s Matt Welch writes, “House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D–Calif.) snapped when asked Tuesday if the proposal to dramatically increase the surveillance capabilities of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) would remain in the trillion-dollar social spending bill currently being negotiated among Democrats on Capitol Hill.

“Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes,” the speaker said. Then she waved aside the questioner’s accurate comment that banks have reported customer concerns about the idea that the IRS would scrutinize accounts with inflows and outflows as low as $600…

How much is $10,000? Average annual rent in West Virginia. Four months of full-time minimum wage earnings in NYC; 8 months federal. Less than half the average price for a used car.

And oh yeah, the HIGH band being proposed right now for IRS bank-snoopage. https://t.co/0yaFq14EeD

— Matt Welch (@MattWelch) October 14, 2021

…the negotiators have already agreed to Biden’s basic setup of giving the IRS an extra $80 billion over the next decade to hire 87,000 new employees and build out a ‘comprehensive financial account reporting regime’ that would intrude into previously untrodden territory (such as Venmo accounts and cryptocurrency), so I’d take the over on regular Joes and Janes seeing a noticeable increase in scrutiny.

Republicans are doing their best to sound the alarm (while the news media are doing their best to stress the ‘Republicans pounce’ angle), but the fact is that without significant outcry about a complicated and hellaciously expensive must-pass monstrosity, some version of this vast new financial surveillance state is likely to get built. Those who value financial privacy are best off seeking it in another country.”

Read the entire column.

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Why is every Democrat in Congress OK with government monitoring the bank transactions of every person in this country?

If someone is suspected of illegal activity, GET A WARRANT!

That’s the only Constitutional way for the government to gain access to this personal information.

— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) October 12, 2021

Fox Business reports, “Congress is out of town but the debate over Democrats’ massive reconciliation spending bill continues, including over one provision that would require banks to report the inflows and outflows of any account with more than $600 in activity per year to the IRS.

Biden highlighted the provision in a Sept. 16 speech, pushing the bill as a way to go after rich people and close the wealth gap.

‘It would ask just for two pieces of information from the banks of these folks – the amounts that come into their bank accounts and the amounts that go out of their bank accounts,’ Biden said. The president added that this is so they can ‘pay what they owe, what the existing tax code calls for.”

Read the entire story.

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FEE’s Jon Miltimore writes, “A former Kansas City Fed president argued the policy was a dangerous trap that was being laid for the middle class.

‘It’s a massive search without a search warrant,’ said Thomas Hoenig, who served as president of the Kansas City Fed from 1991 to 2011. ‘It will be the middle class and the upper middle class who will be caught in this.’

Janet Yellen comes right out and says Treasury wants to snoop in your bank account so the IRS can do more tax audits with “greatly expanded” resources.

Why? So the feds can collect the trillions of dollars they are “owed” by taxpayers. https://t.co/8DlouYnMwI

— Jon Miltimore (@miltimore79) October 7, 2021

Hoenig also pointed out that, in contrast to wealthier Americans, most in the middle class do not have lawyers and accountants they can rely on to help them navigate matters with the IRS.

‘In the collection of the data, there will be false positives,’ Hoenig said. ‘That means individuals will be approached by the government about what they’re doing and they will have to spend additional funds to defend themselves. It’s a really bad idea.”

Read the entire column.

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Freedomworks’ Beverly McKittrick writes, “A Biden administration proposal, now being considered as a ‘revenue raiser’ in the $3.5+ trillion congressional budget legislation, would require banks and other financial institutions to report deposits and withdrawals for all accounts–business and personal–to the IRS. The reporting requirement would extend to services such as Venmo and PayPal. There is an exception for accounts totaling less than $600…

WARNING: If You Have More than $600 in Your Bank Account, the IRS Wants to Know! #Biden #ampFW https://t.co/d5oVq33IqF

— FreedomWorks (@FreedomWorks) September 24, 2021

Ensuring taxpayers pay what they owe is important, but this proposal is Big Government overreach at its worst. It poses an unprecedented intrusion into the smallest details of Americans’ personal finances.”

Read the entire story.

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