Monday, October 18th 2021
WASHINGTON (SBG) — President Joe Biden pledged to go after corporations and wealthy individuals who are not “paying their fair share” in taxes. But experts say the plan to allow the Internal Revenue Service to gather information on U.S. bank accounts would disproportionately impact small businesses and the very individuals the administration says it’s trying to protect.
If approved by Congress, banks would be required to monitor personal and business accounts with more than $600 of activity. Banks would then submit an annual report to the IRS with that aggregated data. According to the Treasury, the reports would allow auditors to identify discrepancies between declared income going into the bank and deposits and investigate irregularities.
“I think the net will catch a lot of small fish and not the big fish that Biden purports to target,” said Steven Rosenthal, a senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. “It seems to me, a bait and switch. They purport to go after the one-percenters but in the crosshairs will be small businesses.” …
