In an unbelievable exchange, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen showed support for a Biden administration plan to require banks to report to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) any of your transactions that amount to over $600, and she referred to that collection and transfer of data as “routine” even after she caught a lot of flak because the move is considered broadly as an unprecedented invasion of privacy.
This has nothing to do with the tax information of taxpayers and therefore, the IRS should not be privy to American citizens’ purchasing transactions.
It seems every day of this administration Americans are being subjected to more and more assaults on their rights and freedoms.
The Fourth Amendment is in the Bill of Rights:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
What Yellen just supported violates the privacy that all American citizens have enshrined in the Constitution. It’s disgusting.
On Tuesday, during an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Yellen was asked if the IRS has the “wherewithal” to collect more information about taxpayers and bank accounts, adding cash flows into the mix, something most Republicans are calling invasive.
“Well, of course they do,” Yellen said. “Right now, on every bank account that earns more than $10 a year in interest, the banks report the interest earned to the IRS. That’s part of the information base that includes W2’s and reports on dividends in other income that taxpayers earned. So collection of information is routine.”
It’s amazing how she just likened every single transaction you make over $600 being reported to the IRS to a yearly reporting of interest earned on your bank account. And the taxpayers will be paying to have Big Brother watching over them. This is an incredibly evil thing to do to American citizens, making them have to worry about legitimate purchases that the Democrats may otherwise not like. For example, suppose you want to buy a new firearm to protect your family and your home? And suppose that firearm costs over $600. Suppose you want to buy a pistol that’s $650. Now, the IRS will be notified that you purchased a gun for $650. And if you think the IRS isn’t going to share that data with the ATF, then I have some wonderful miracle supplements I would love to sell you.
Yellen mentioned the “enormous tax gap” in the United States as the reason behind the administration’s coming tax hikes and information collecting, blaming the gap on places information on income “can be hidden.”
“It’s just a few pieces of information about individual bank accounts, nothing at the transaction level that would violate privacy,” the secretary said.
This is a lie. She is lying for the administration. There is no government policy that can violate the clause “shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation,” in the Fourth Amendment. We either live according to the US Constitution or we do not. And we can’t rely on our news media to ask questions like that of the administration. They are corrupt and politicized to favor the Democrats. We the people must react. Contact your representatives and tell them you do not want your transactions over $600 to be given to the government.
The federal government cannot get around the 4th amendment on this. If they have specific people in mind that they want to “catch” cheating on taxes, they have warrants they can issue upon probable cause. To do a blanket program attacking all Americans is ludicrous and unconstitutional. And it is the work of tyrants.
The Big Lie here is that the information they want to collect would supposedly help the IRS find which wealthy people might be concealing transactions and income and “these would be helpful indicators of where it would make sense for auditing to occur,” Yellen added.
Then get a warrant to go after wealthy people. If that is the reason, then it makes zero sense to do a blanket policy over everyone. Folks, you need to stand up to this. If they get away with this, there is nothing they won’t try in the future. I promise you, this will affect your life in many negative ways. And now that they are also talking about moving to a digital currency economy without coin or Federal Reserve notes, there would be no way for you to buy things using cash. You would have to break down every transaction over $600 to multiple transactions of $599 or less.
“So, it is not reporting of individual transactions or anything of the like. And it would be a simple thing for banks and other payment providers to provide along with the other information they’re already providing.” Except that it IS the reporting of individual transactions the banks would be providing. How can these people lie this way with a straight face?
According to the Wall Street Journal, under the Biden administration’s proposal, banks will be required(remember, shall not be violated) to hand over aggregate inflow and outflow of annual numbers to the IRS and the data will include bank accounts with at least $600 or at least $600 worth of transactions.
Will the banks be served with warrants for each transaction of data given? I highly doubt it.
Republicans have come out against this proposal as an invasion of privacy. Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) blasted Yellen during a Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Development Committee hearing, asking the Treasury Secretary if she understands “how unnecessary this regulatory burden is?”
“My question is: Are you aware of how unnecessary this regulatory burden is?” Lummis asked Yellen. “Do you distrust the American people so much that you need to know when they bought a couch? Or a cow?”
This is where Yellen used the argument that the IRS already sends in a yearly report on one thing, interest paid on accounts that exceed $10.
“It is a proposal to add two additional pieces of easily ascertained information onto the 1099-INT form the banks already file.”
It doesn’t matter how many additional pieces of information they want included. The result will be an end of your privacy for things you do with your own money.
“There are obvious privacy concerns for all Americans here and this represents a dramatic new regulatory burden for community banks and credit unions in Wyoming and elsewhere,” Lummis added.
“Bank customers are not subjects to the federal government. Banks do not work for the IRS.”
Yellen argued back at the senator, “Banks already report directly to the IRS the interest that they pay on accounts when it exceeds $10, and this is not a proposal to provide detailed transaction-level data by banks to the IRS.”
Lummis shot back, “Well, $600 threshold is not usually where you’re going to find the massive amount of tax revenue you think Americans are cheating you out of.”
“That’s correct,” Yellen admitted, “but it’s important to have comprehensive information so that individuals can’t game the system and have multiple accounts.”
That’s the government’s problem and the Fourth Amendment says they cannot make it our problem. How much do you want to bet that House and Senate members will be exempted from this new policy?
John Murante, state Treasurer of Nebraska, argued in the statement released last month.:
“This could lead to a tremendous invasion of privacy the likes of which our country has never seen. Millions of law-abiding Americans would suddenly have their bank accounts opened to federal investigators for no more reason than buying a refrigerator. This is simply unconscionable. To make matters worse, under this proposal, saving for college could put an American family on the IRS’s radar, costs that most likely will be passed on to the public.”
The administration will do it anyway because they don’t listen to any reasoning that doesn’t comply 100% with what they want to do. They are totalitarian hellbent on controlling every aspect of your life. This policy will be a great start.
