WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., on Thursday helped introduce the Prohibiting IRS Financial Surveillance Act, a bill to prevent the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) from implementing Democrats’ plan to give the agency access to transaction information of virtually every American.

The legislation (S.3056) would stop an effort by Democrats to give the IRS access to every working American’s financial information by requiring banks, credit unions, and other institutions to report to the IRS each and every withdrawal and deposit that total at least $10,000.  The plan is intended to generate funding to pay for President Biden’s multi-trillion dollar reckless big-government, tax-and-spend plan.

“The IRS has no business micromanaging the private transactions of American citizens,” Wicker said. “I am also strongly opposed to any effort from national Democrats to squeeze taxpayers for a massive expansion of federal spending. The Biden Administration should withdraw this outrageous and absurd proposal immediately.”

“Every taxpayer should pay their due, but that doesn’t mean President Biden’s plan to expand the federal government should result in growing the IRS to collect the details on personal financial information of virtually every Mississippian,” Hyde-Smith said.  “I fully support Senator Scott’s legislation to put a hard stop to this dangerous tax surveillance dragnet.”

The Prohibiting IRS Financial Surveillance Act would prohibit the Biden administration’s proposed violation of privacy and federal government overreach through restrictions on the U.S. Treasury and IRS.

Key points on the need for S.3056:

• Under the Biden reporting regime a family, whose monthly expenses total just $833, would still be required to be reported to the IRS.
• Nearly every American, even those below the poverty line, would be subject to this proposed reporting regime.
• The Joint Committee on Taxation has analyzed the proposal and found that it is likely to affect taxpayers in every income bracket, including those making less than $50,000.
• Steven Rosenthal at the left-leaning Tax Policy Center concluded the bank reporting requirement proposal would “in fact, bury the agency in a sea of unproductive information.”

U.S. Senator Tim Scott, R-S.C., introduced the measure, which is cosponsored by 47 Republican Senators.

Read a copy of the bill here. 

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