Taxes are an important part of our society, but when it comes to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), they tend to take things too far. It’s a shame that the Biden administration has weaponized the government to target hardworking Americans who don’t have the resources to properly assist them.
Recently, the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University conducted a study of 2022 IRS tax audit data and found that those in the lowest income bracket have five times more likelihood of being audited than those in the highest income bracket. This means that millionaires have only a 1.1% chance of being audited, whereas those making less than $25,000 per year had 12.7 chances out of every 1,000 returns filed. It’s utterly ridiculous and unjust.
That’s why California Rep. Michelle Steel and Tennessee Sen. Bill Hagerty have proposed the Stop the Nosy Obsession with Online Payments (SNOOP) Act into Congress. This bill would eliminate the new requirement by President Biden for Americans to report online transactions over $600 using platforms like PayPal and Venmo with 1099-K reports back to the IRS. This is an extreme violation of people’s privacy rights and a serious threat to our financial system.
I introduced the SNOOP Act to strike the Biden Administration's provision requiring thousands of small businesses to provide their personal information to the IRS. It's time we stand up for our small businesses & put an end to this egregious overreach.https://t.co/SvtqNCtcVQ
— Senator Bill Hagerty (@SenatorHagerty) January 25, 2023
Steel said, “We will not allow the Biden administration to weaponize government to target hardworking American taxpayers” while Hagerty claimed, “It is regrettable that this administration still insists on advancing their perilous and oppressive political agenda.”
The SNOOP Act would restore reporting requirements back before 2021 when payment platforms provided information when payees made more than 200 transactions a year totaling over $20,000 instead of individuals having to do it themselves through 1099-K reports sent directly back to the IRS each time they transact over $600 online. This is the only way to protect hardworking Americans from being taken advantage of by the big brother tactics of the Biden administration and to restore confidence within our financial system.
It’s time for us to stand up for our rights and fight back against this oppressive taxation. No one should have to worry about the IRS snooping into their online transactions and it’s time for the Biden administration to stop targeting hardworking Americans. We need to pass the SNOOP Act and protect our privacy rights while restoring faith in our financial system.