WASHINGTON—United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN), a member of the Senate Banking Committee, has joined Senators Tim Scott (R-SC) and Mike Crapo (R-ID), along with other Senate Republican colleagues, in introducing the Prohibiting IRS Financial Surveillance Act, which will block future progressive political efforts that would force the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to snoop on the private information of American taxpayers.
In 2021, the Biden Administration proposed new requirements that would have directed the IRS to collect the private transaction information of virtually every American. This legislation will protect taxpayers by prohibiting such requirements from ever being implemented.
“The Biden Administration and Democrats are attempting massive government overreach by hiring thousands of new IRS agents to snoop on the finances of the American people,” said Senator Hagerty. “I’m pleased to join my colleagues in this legislation that would put an end to any future attempts by our government to spy on Americans.”
“Under the Biden administration and progressive leadership, the IRS has proposed outrageous actions that threaten the privacy of American taxpayers,” said Senator Scott. “In light of this pattern, this legislation will prevent the IRS from taking future steps to encroach on the lives and finances of everyday Americans.”
“Americans are justifiably concerned about providing sensitive customer data to the IRS, an agency with an extensive history of leaks, hacks and other violations of taxpayer confidentiality,” said Senator Crapo. “They loudly rejected the IRS bank reporting dragnet when it was originally proposed, and this legislation will prevent the IRS from turning banks and credit unions into private investigators for law-abiding Americans.”
In February 2022, Hagerty led his colleagues in introducing his Stop the Nosy Obsession with Online Payments, or SNOOP, Act, a bill to strike the tax code provision inserted by the Biden Administration in the American Rescue Plan that requires third-party payment platforms to report businesses’ gross transaction volumes totaling more than $600 to the Internal Revenue Service. Hagerty reintroduced his legislation at the start of the 118th Congress after the IRS announced a one-year delay in increasing reporting thresholds for third-party payment platforms.
This bill is endorsed by the Consumer Bankers Association (CBA), Credit Union National Association (CUNA), American Bankers Association (ABA), Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA), U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions (NAFCU), Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), and the National Taxpayers Union (NTU).
Full text of the legislation can be found here.
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This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.hagerty.senate.gov/press-releases/2023/02/28/hagerty-scott-crapo-colleagues-introduce-bill-to-block-irs-surveillance-protect-american-taxpayers/