Today, October 21st, 2021, Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (IA-02) joined over 200 of her colleagues in a letter, led by Rep. Tom Emmer (MN-06), to the Secretary of the United States Department of Treasury, Janet Yellen, reiterating their concerns with the Biden Administration’s proposal to expand the data collected by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on Americans’ bank accounts.
“The Administration’s continued push to invade Americans’ privacy should concern everyone. Raising the reporting threshold from $600 to $10,000 still means the overwhelming majority of Americans will be targeted by the IRS,” said Miller-Meeks. “The Treasury Department’s response to our September 13 letter was unacceptable and I am proud to join this second letter to show the Administration that we will not back down. I will continue to fight to ensure that all Americans’ right to privacy is protected.”
Background:
On September 13th, 2021, Miller-Meeks joined a letter, also led by Rep. Emmer, with 142 of her colleagues expressing concern with the Administration’s plan to require financial institutions and other financial services providers to report to the IRS a range of new data points on accounts with annual gross inflows and outflows totaling more than $600.
Following that letter, the Department of Treasury responded on September 29th, attempting to justify their actions as an effort to “close the tax gap”. However, they failed to address the privacy implications of their proposal. Recently, the Administration and the majorities in Congress have begun considering increasing the threshold from $600 to $10,000 (or an even higher amount). Arbitrarily increasing the threshold to $10,000, as most recently proposed, will still apply to individuals at every rung of the income ladder.
Miller-Meeks recently co-sponsored two pieces of legislation that would prevent the IRS from invading Americans’ privacy.
Original source can be found here
