MO Pushes Back to Protect Financial Information of Citizens
Dear Citizens: Missouri State Treasurer Scott Fitzpatrick has joined a coalition of 22 State Treasurers and state financial officers to speak out against new requirements proposed by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The group is opposing a proposal that would require financial institutions to turn over private citizens’ personal bank account information to the IRS if they exceed $600 of inflows or outflows from the account.
Treasurer Fitzpatrick said, “These proposals follow a troubling pattern of increasing government overreach….they are not considering the potential impact on small businesses and our small community banks and credit unions. The impact of these proposals touches millions of Americans—and puts their data privacy at risk. Not only that, it might discourage unbanked Americans from opening bank accounts, which is detrimental to their financial health.”
Fitzpatrick signed onto a letter with his fellow state financial officers that was sent to the President. The letter states, “We do not believe the federal government should give the IRS the unprecedented and unconstitutional power to peer into law abiding American citizens’ private financial accounts. This would be one of the largest infringements of data privacy in our nation’s history and is a direct assault on law abiding private citizens’ financial disclosures.”
Part of the Federal American Families Plan, this proposal would create a comprehensive financial account information reporting system under which financial institutions would be required to report information on account inflows and outflows over $600. These reporting requirements are anticipated to burden financial institutions as well as put sensitive financial data at risk and the IRS at a greater risk of cyber-attack.
The letter goes on to say, “This would impact well over 100 million Americans who currently have a financial account. In the last year alone, over 127 million Americans qualified for the CARES Act which deposited funds in excess of $600 into their financial account. Funds deposited included $600 weekly boost in unemployment benefits from the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation Program (FPUC) for the 25 million Americans who lost their job during the pandemic, roughly $3,200 in Economic Impact Payments (EIP) and most recently Advanced Child Tax Credit Payments to millions of Americans.”
The letter in its entirety can be viewed at the following link: https://treasurer.mo.gov/pdf/SFOFLetterToPresidentBidenandSecretaryYellen.pdf
Contact Representative Patricia Pike at patricia.pike@house.mo.gov or call 573-751-5388.
