House Bill Introduced to Prohibit Increased IRS Reporting

A credit union-supported House bill was introduced Friday that would prohibit the implementation of any expanded Internal Revenue Service (IRS) financial institution reporting requirements. Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa) introduced the bill, which follows a Senate companion bill introduced last week.

“Smaller credit unions would be especially burdened by this new proposal.  From the increased costs of software upgrades to staff training, smaller institutions would perhaps need financial resources and additional time for implementation to meet the new requirements of the proposal,” wrote CUNA President/CEO Jim Nussle in support of the legislation. “This new proposal would result in banks and credit unions turning over to the IRS sensitive account details that in and of themselves do not constitute taxable events. This would leave the IRS with a massive trove of personal financial data that would be used in a manner that is not detailed in the proposal.”

Nussle adds that data privacy and security are paramount issues for credit unions and their members, and CUNA remains doubtful that collected data will remain safe and private.

CUNA issued an action alert calling on credit unions to send their concerns to Capitol Hill using its Grassroots Action Center. As of this week, more than 300,000 messages have been sent.

Credit unions can also activate their members to send messages to Capitol Hill through CUNA’s Member Activation Program (MAP) community.