This would completely do away with any concept of financial privacy, allowing the government to have direct access to information about people's bank accounts. Biden's plan wants to give an extraordinary amount of new power to the IRS. Take a look at this fact sheet from the Treasury Department, explaining a new provision that would require banks and financial institutions to start telling the tax agency what people have in their bank account, when money is moved around, and the like. This proposal, according to the fact sheet, "leverages the information that financial institutions already know about account holders, simply requiring that they add to their regular, annual reports information about aggregate account outflows and inflows. Providing the IRS this information will help improve audit selection so it can better target its enforcement activity on the most suspect evaders, avoiding unnecessary (and costly) audits of ordinary taxpayers." Giving the IRS more power to track money that moves into and out of your accounts is supposedly meant to help the tax agency go after the wealthiest taxpayers. However, this new authority has been described as being akin to giving federal tax "cops" even more of an excuse to claim a metaphorical probable cause to financially "stop and frisk" someone. The US operates under a so-called pay as you go tax framework, meaning that people are penalized if they wait until the end of the tax year, for example, to pay all their taxes in one lump sum. This way, the IRS could see that people have a certain degree of taxable income flowing through their financial accounts that they should be paying taxes on throughout the year. The Biden administration wants to spend $80 billion to expand the IRS' compliance abilities in order to generate $700 billion over the next decade to help pay for the American Families Plan, and the benefits it includes like new quasi-stimulus checks. Where does that $700 billion come from? From the increased tax enforcement that the $80 billion IRS expansion made possible. https://citizenfreepress.com/breaking/bidens-new-plan-lets-the-irs-snoop-on-your-bank-accounts/ Didn't this type of thing use to require a warrant? You know, "probable cause", and things like that... And this information would only have to be handed over in specific instances. It's interesting how fast these things move. The Patriot Act, passed in 2001, created specific legal requirement that banks be forced to verify the identity of the account holders and keep records. Presumably so that courts could be able to subpoena these records if there was reason to suspect terrorist-related transfer of money. Some complained this did away with the possibility of privacy, but most didn't seem to care that much at the time. Now it seems like they're going to use that legislation, passed 20 years ago, as a springboard to routinely force the information to be collected from everybody. And just think a little bit for a moment. What could that later be used a springboard for in the future? Think about Elizabeth Warren's "wealth tax" proposal, or even in Australia where there are very real fears that the government might in the near future try to implement a concept called "negative interest rates", where they take your saved money out of your bank account, taxing your savings directly. (Allegedly to try to incentivize people to spend more of their money when government decides that is good policy) Australia plan to ban cash purchases over $10,000 looks like it may soon become law Seems civil liberties are getting chipped away a little at a time. And most people have forgotten why the right to privacy of information is so important.
Remember, prosecutors have the authority to have all the money in your bank accounts frozen. Which is of course totally understandable, but at least (under the old system) they had to figure out where that money is first. There have been documented cases where this power was abused, to prevent defendants from being able to pay for a lawyer, to coerce them into a plea bargain and force them to plead guilty. Can't hire an expensive lawyer if all your money in your bank account is frozen. Any time people are routinely forced to hand over information and that information is collected in a mass fashion, there is the potential that exists for that information to get misused in an abusive fashion. It could just be some government officer who is likely never to face any repercussions. Or for the passage of some new law, or new policy, that will use that information in a way nobody was expecting. When government collects information about something, they usually want to control it. And once they have more control over something, there's a typical long-term trend for them to want to control it more, and make decisions about it they wouldn't have been able to before.
It seems like every new outrage just eventually becomes normalized and passé, a decade or two later. Then they use what already exists as a precedent to ratchet up the restrictions. related thread: IRS Threatens Prison For Depositing Cash in "Wrong" Amounts
How does this fly with the 4th amendment? They should require a warrant or your consent to search your personal, private information. At least with the income tax they passed a constitutional amendment.
