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Senate Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2021 - 2022
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | October 13, 2021 03:49 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Senator Kristin Phillips-Hill and Sen. Camera Bartolotta |
| To: | All Senate members |
| Subject: | Resolution Urging Congress to Oppose President Biden’s Proposal to Access Bank Accounts of Private Citizens |
| In the near future, we will introduce a resolution urging Congress to oppose President Biden’s proposal to require financial institutions to provide the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) with information on accounts with balances that exceed $600. Unlike measures taken to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism, this proposal is misguided and would not target those who are cheating the system but would instead capture information on nearly every Pennsylvania taxpayer – individual taxpayers and businesses alike. This could present a host of unintended consequences and adverse impacts for all parties involved, including customer privacy and data security risks, compliance costs for individuals and small businesses, and has the potential to damage customer relationships for financial institutions of all sizes across the state. This would be a significant amount of data that financial intuitions must report to the IRS already, some of which the IRS has publicly stated it does not have the capacity to utilize. Under the President’s proposal, significant additional information, such as loan payments or transfers between a taxpayer’s various bank accounts, could be captured and reported. We fear that the amount of new information that the proposal could require to be submitted will be massive, unmanageable, and of questionable relevance in the calculation of taxable income. Pennsylvanians have real concerns about having their financial institution share this information with the IRS when the agency has a troubling track record of protecting taxpayer data. As I am sure you know, the IRS is a constant target of cyber criminals and has recently suffered significant data breaches. It is impractical and ill-advised for the government to put this significant amount of additional sensitive financial data at risk, especially when the IRS does not even have the capability to effectively utilize that data. We are living in a time when many of our constituents are continuing to recover from the crippling effects of the global health pandemic and we respectfully ask for your support in cosponsoring this resolution in urging Congress to oppose this proposal that could have serious consequences for all Pennsylvanians. |
Introduced as SR195