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Rep. Boebert Cosponsors Bill to Stop the IRS from Trampling on Americans’ Privacy by Excessively Monitoring Bank Accounts

October 14, 2021

Congresswoman Lauren Boebert stood up for Americans’ financial privacy by cosponsoring the Protecting Financial Privacy Act to prohibit the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) from accessing and monitoring Americans’ bank transactions above $600.

Rep. Lauren Boebert stated: “I won’t stand idly by watching Janet Yellen radically transform the IRS into a leftist, Praetorian Guard that spies on Americans’ private financial transactions. Last time Joe Biden had an office in the White House, his administration weaponized the IRS to target conservative organizations. That overreach didn’t give him enough control, so now, he is trying to allow IRS bureaucrats to spy on individual American’s bank accounts. The federal government has no business monitoring small cash deposits and how Americans pay their bills and has no right to snoop around in private checking accounts without a warrant. The Constitution is the new White House doormat, but if Biden bothered to give it a read, he’d know that the Fourth Amendment doesn’t allow unreasonable searches.”

Congresswoman Ashley Hinson said: “Forcing financial institutions to turn over Americans' transactions of $600 or more would compromise the privacy of Americans, shut down community financial institutions, and ultimately reduce Iowans' access to credit. The IRS doesn't need access to Iowans' most basic personal information; the government has no right to know every time Iowans pay their bills or go the grocery store. The Protecting Financial Privacy Act would block this proposal and safeguard taxpayers from this invasion of privacy. The push to include this provision in reconciliation, along with $80 billion to nearly quadruple the IRS budget, is reflective of how backwards Democrat priorities are right now--we need more border agents, not more IRS agents."

Senator Tommy Tuberville said: “Folks feel uneasy when someone is snooping around in their business, especially when it’s the federal government doing the snooping. Yet that is exactly what President Biden wants to do with excessive reporting that will strain our local banks and credit unions. The Protecting Financial Privacy Act will proactively block President Biden’s proposal of reporting Americans’ financial transactions of over $600 to the IRS, and stop big brother government at its worst.”

Background:

The Biden regime, through IRS Secretary Janet Yellen, introduced an unconstitutional plan requiring banks and credit unions to report individuals’ financial transactions of $600 and above to the IRS. Specifically, Yellen proposed to “create a comprehensive financial account information reporting regime. Financial institutions would report data on financial accounts in an information return. The annual return will report gross inflows and outflows with a breakdown for physical cash, transactions with a foreign account, and transfers to and from another account with the same owner. This requirement would apply to all business and personal accounts from financial institutions, including bank, loan, and investment accounts, with the exception of accounts below a low de minimis gross flow threshold of $600 or fair market value of $600.”

House Democrats have pursued this extreme overreach and included it in their $5.5 trillion spending bill.  

Rep. Boebert joined 33 other members of the House of Representatives in cosponsoring the Protecting Financial Privacy Act to prohibit the IRS from accessing and monitoring Americans’ transactions above $600. Senator Tommy Tuberville has introduced a companion bill in the U.S. Senate.