League Writes Treasury on Issues with Expanded IRS Reporting Requirements

Your League last week wrote Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to outline our concerns with a proposal to expand IRS reporting requirements.

The proposal would require financial institutions to send a report to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of gross inflows and outflows for each bank account of more than $10,000, up from an original threshold of $600. The proposal remains problematic even at that level, given that it would still capture the vast majority of Americans' banking accounts. For perspective, the Bureau of Labor Statistics notes the average taxpayer in America spends about $61,000 a year, including some $20,000 in housing costs.

Your League argues that collecting that data will prove burdensome from a regulatory compliance and technology standpoint, especially for smaller institutions. Consumers also have valid concerns about their privacy, with our letter noting Treasury's own fact sheet citing 1.4 billion attempted cyberattacks on the IRS annually.

Read our letter