The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) has joined other business groups in opposing a Treasury Department proposal requiring financial institutions to report customer bank account information to the IRS.
The ICBA recently joined the coalition in forwarding correspondence to federal lawmakers as a means of outlining objection to the proposal requiring financial institutions to report deposit and withdrawal activity of business and personal accounts possessing a balance of more than $600 to the IRS.
“The Treasury Department’s proposal to mandate blanket financial account reporting to the IRS would intrude on consumer privacy, create data security risks to taxpayers, undermine efforts to reduce the unbanked population, and create taxpayer complexity and confusion,” ICBA President and CEO Rebeca Romero Rainey said. “Community bankers and other small businesses urge Congress to reject the Treasury proposal and explore less intrusive means of reducing the tax gap.”
The correspondence alleged the IRS has a poor record of data security that would compromise taxpayers’ privacy and raise the risk of identity theft; intrusive account reporting would undermine the goal of reducing the unbanked population among communities prone to distrust of institutions and government agencies; and create taxpayer complexity while undermining the goal of tax simplicity as a means of promoting compliance.