By Guy Page
A plan by the Biden administration to give the Internal Revenue Service audit power over all transactions of $600 or more is being reviewed by the Scott administration and state banking and credit union leaders for its impact on the Vermont economy, Dept. of Regulation Commissioner Michael Pieciak said at today’s press conference.
According to Americans for Tax Reform, President Biden has proposed creating a new comprehensive financial account information reporting regime which would force the disclosure of any business or personal account that exceeds $600. Not only would this include the bank, loan, and investment accounts of virtually every individual and business, but it would also include third-party providers like Venmo, CashApp, and PayPal.
“The goal of the legislation is to get increased tax compliance,” Pieciak said in response to a question by Vermont Daily Chronicle. “In Vermont we have small community banks…we are worried about placing an additional burden on them.”
“The goal is laudable,” Pieciak said.
Under the Bank Secrecy Act, financial institutions are currently required to report transactions exceeding $10,000 or multiple transactions in aggregate of $10,000 in a single day. TIGTA examined 306 investigations undertaken by IRS-CI between 2012 and 2014 for violating this law, where a total of $55.3 million assets were seized, ATR said. During the audit, the sample size was narrowed to 278 investigations, as several did not meet the criterion for inclusion.
The IRS Criminal Investigation Division (IRS-CI) regularly violated taxpayers’ rights and skirted or ignored due process requirements when investigating taxpayers for allegedly violating the $10,000 currency transaction reporting requirements, according to a 2017 report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA). In addition, less than one in ten investigations uncovered violations of tax law, ATR said.