SNOOP Act would strike the Biden Administration’s intrusive American Rescue Plan provision requiring thousands of small businesses to provide their personal information to the IRS
WASHINGTON—United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN), a member of the Senate Banking Committee, has led a group of Republican senators in introducing the Stop the Nosy Obsession with Online Payments, orSNOOP, Act, a bill to strike the tax code provision inserted by the Biden Administration 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).
Prior to the ARP, payment providers 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 of small businesses will have to fill out 1099-Ks to provide their personal information to the IRS, despite the IRS’ poor history of safeguarding Americans’ personal data.
“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.”
“President Biden claims he isn’t going to raise taxes on those making less than $400,000, but by increasing reporting requirements for small businesses and independent contractors the cost of doing business just keeps going up,” said Senator Rick Scott. “Along with trillions in unnecessary and unrelated in spending in their so-called ‘COVID’ spending package, Biden and the Democrats snuck in a tax increase on gig workers, like hardworking Americans that drive for Uber, Lyft or DoorDash. Meanwhile, Democrats refuse to acknowledge the inflation and supply chain crisis. Let me be clear: reckless spending is causing inflation, and further increasing costs and regulations on already-struggling Americans only makes things worse. I want to thank Senator Hagerty for continuing our fight in protecting working-class families, and I urge my colleagues for their support of the SNOOP Act.”
“Attempts by Democrats to give the federal government more power and reach into Americans’ day-to-day activities are deeply troubling,” said Senator Cramer. “The federal government should not be able to snoop on taxpayers’ personal transactions. Our bill will undo their plans to spy on Americans’ personal finances and violate their privacy.”
“The IRS spent much of last year trying to get access to more information about taxpayers’ bank accounts,” said Senator Lummis. “When we protested, they switched tactics: Now they are forcing PayPal and Venmo to put even more burdens on small businesses who use these platforms as a cost-effective way of doing business. Meanwhile, the IRS is failing to keep up with its own backlogs. I want the IRS to do their actual job by quickly serving the people of Wyoming, instead of looking for more ways to spy on our bank accounts. This must stop, and I’m proud to join Senator Bill Hagerty in fighting IRS overreach.”
“The Biden administration is working overtime to implement their radical far-left agenda and, in turn, to make life more difficult for Iowans and everyday Americans; look no further than their big government scheme to pry into law-abiding small businesses’ financial accounts,” said Senator Ernst. “I’m proud to join my colleagues in standing up for taxpayer privacy and pushing back against this federal overreach.”
“The Biden Administration’s total disregard for privacy has to be stopped,” said Senator Rubio. “There is no reason that the IRS should be putting Americans’ confidential transactions under a microscope. I will continue to fight for taxpayer privacy and push back against this gross overreach of federal power.”
Last year, Hagerty joined several of his Republican colleagues in introducing the “Prohibiting IRS Financial Surveillance Act,” a bill to prevent the IRS from implementing Democrats’ plan to give the agency access to transaction information of virtually every American.
Hagerty also questioned in November U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in a Senate Banking Committee hearing on Democrats’ planned massive increase in IRS enforcement funding to collect hundreds of billions more from working Americans as a way to pay for their big-government-socialism programs in the so-called Build Back Better package. Hagerty indicated to Yellen that empowering this increased IRS snooping over Americans’ finances is particularly concerning given the total lack of accountability for the leak of confidential taxpayer information to ProPublica.
Background:
- Earlier this month, the Washington Examiner reported that third-party payment processors, like Venmo and PayPal, will be required to report these business transactions.
- Over the past year, Democrats have used the IRS to target conservative political organizations and wealthy Americans to further their political agenda.
- Although the effort ultimately failed, the Biden Administration attempted to force banks to report data on all bank accounts with more than $600 in annual transactions, which would have allowed them to pry even further into Americans’ lives.
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