A bill recently introduced in the U.S. Senate would eliminate the tax code provision in the American Rescue Plan (ARP) that requires third-party payment platforms to report businesses’ gross transaction volumes totaling more than $600 to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
The bill – called Stop the Nosy Obsession with Online Payments, or SNOOP, Act – was introduced by U.S. Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN). Previously, third-party payment providers, like PayPal, for example, were only required to report information when a payee had over 200 commercial transactions per year that exceeded $20,000. As a result of the new provision, thousands more small businesses will have to fill out 1099-Ks.
“The Biden Administration is relentless in their attempt to invade the privacy of Americans’ lives and finances,” said Senator Hagerty. “It is regrettable that this Administration insists on advancing their perilous and oppressive political agenda to the detriment of taxpayers’ privacy, heedless of their failed track record of protecting Americans’ confidential data. It is past time we stand up for our small business owners and say, ‘no more snooping’ to this Administration’s egregious and unwarranted overreach.”
Last year, Hagerty and several of his Republican colleagues introduced the Prohibiting IRS Financial Surveillance Act, prohibiting the implementation of new requirements to report bank account deposits and withdrawals.
Hagerty also questioned U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen last November in a Senate Banking Committee hearing on the plan to increase IRS enforcement funding to collect unpaid taxes.