Consumer Alert from ICBA

Consumer Alert

Washington proposes new bank reporting of all personal and business financial account info to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Let Congress know your privacy matters.

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Policymakers in Washington have proposed requiring banks to report their customers’ aggregate bank account flows to the IRS regardless of customer consent.

While community banks do not endorse such broad IRS access to their customers’ account information, consumers need to be aware of the potential effects of this proposal.

The IRS reporting proposal would infringe on the privacy of bank customers, push more people away from a banking relationship and overload the IRS with more personal information about American citizens than it can possibly process or keep safe from a data hack.

To be heard in Washington before this bank IRS reporting regime is enacted, you can send the following customizable message directly to your members of Congress and ensure your voice is heard.

Consumers Express
Opposition


Morning Consult-ICBA polling found:

  • 67% of voters oppose IRS proposal
  • 64% don’t trust IRS to monitor financial info
  • 54% don’t trust IRS to keep financial data safe

Consumer  Advocates Say

Consumer groups are speaking out against the broad, untargeted nature of the bank IRS reporting regime proposal.

"In practice, the IRS’s task would be daunting and, in fact, bury the agency in a sea of unproductive information."

-Steven Rosenthal of the Urban Institute and Brookings Institution’s Tax Policy Center

"They are collecting information about everybody, and I don’t know why it is necessary to collect information about everybody."

Ed Mierzwinski of U.S. Public Interest Research Group