Racine Sun

Wisconsin State Rep. Bryan Steil recently voiced his opposition to a proposal that would require banks to report activity to the IRS involving all bank accounts with a balance greater than $600.

According to CBS News, government officials have presented a proposal that would require banks to track money going in and out of all bank accounts with a balance greater than $600. The motion is part of President Joe Biden’s plan to address tax evasion by the wealthy and officials insist that they will not be monitoring individual transactions or increasing audits on people who earn less than $400,000 per year.  

However, because much of the IRS’s work is automated, lower-earning Americans are already audited at a higher rate than higher-earning Americans. The American Bankers Association and several financial industry groups have expressed concerns that enacting this proposal would affect small business owners and independent contractors the most.

"This proposal is an invasion of privacy and raises very serious cybersecurity concerns," Steil wrote in an Oct. 13 Twitter post.

The proposal has been removed from the $3.5 trillion spending bill currently being debated in Congress, but Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is still pushing for it, and it could still be put back into the bill, Lake Geneva Regional News reported. The president and CEO of Community State Bank, which is headquartered in Union Grove and has branches in Racine, Kenosha and Walworth counties, Scott Huedepohl has sent an email to customers urging them to contact their representatives to oppose the legislation.

More than 40 trade associations have sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy calling for them to reject the legislation, according to Yahoo! News. "The letter stated that in addition to violating customers’ privacy, the proposed legislation would put the burden of an "expensive and elaborate reporting requirement" on banks.