Kelly Hayes
U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist is slamming a controversial proposal to expand account reporting requirements to the Internal Revenue Service.
The measure would require banks to provide data to the IRS on accounts with total annual deposits or withdrawals worth more than $10,000, not including wages or federal benefits such as Social Security, according to The News York Times. That measure, backed by the Biden administration, is a revised version of a plan that originally had a $600 threshold.
“Floridians depend on their banks and credit unions to secure more than just deposits. They depend on them to safeguard their personal information,” Crist said in a statement.
Instead of pursuing account reporting requirements, Crist suggested addressing the current tax code and auditing top earners.
“President Biden is correct to go after the tax cheats, who despite being worth millions of dollars, often pay little to no taxes,” Crist said. “Part of that is fixing the broken tax code, but another critical part is focusing the IRS on auditing lawbreakers at the top. I have long supported increasing the IRS enforcement budget and criticized the agency for disproportionately auditing the poor instead of the top 1%. Better audits would increase compliance, go after the bad actors, and raise revenues to fund the President’s Build Back Better plan to invest in good-paying jobs, fighting climate change and (building) stronger families.”
The proposed reporting requirements were revised after banks lobbied on the issue and congressional Republicans, who said the measure would lead to privacy concerns, criticized it.
“I am deeply concerned about the proposal to expand IRS reporting requirements for bank accounts. Working people with $10,000 in annual deposits are hardly the top 1%,” Crist said in a statement. “Allowing the IRS to data mine checking accounts raises serious privacy red flags and would increase costs, while targeting hardworking Floridians who are already struggling to get by. I will not support any IRS account reporting requirements that go after the middle class and working families. That dog won’t hunt.”
