John,
Wealthy tax cheats cost us hundreds of billions of dollars every year, while regular taxpayers like you and I pay our fair share.
President Biden has a plan to track down and audit those tax cheats, by requiring banks to tell the IRS what they know about large accounts and how much money is flowing in and out of them. Even better, this one reporting requirement would raise hundreds of billions of dollars that we can put toward building back better.
But Republicans and their friends on Wall Street are trying to kill the proposal and protect their wealthy tax-cheating donors and clients. Fact-checkers have been busy debunking their disinformation, and we need your help to keep fighting back against the Wall Street and right-wing lies. (See media clips below.)
Check out Senator Warren’s and Senator Wyden’s statements below correcting the record, then chip in to help us let the American people know how the bank reporting requirement works and how it helps working people.
“More than $150 billion dollars a year is lost by these top earners [evading taxes]. And that is exactly why Congress is considering a simple new third party reporting requirement. Under this proposal, banks would report just two, very general numbers to the IRS each year: the total dollars that have come into an account, and the total dollars that have gone out.
This means the IRS can spot wealthy tax cheats that have millions of dollars flowing into an account but they’re not reporting any money on their tax return.”
―Senator Elizabeth Warren
“Cheating by those at the top is one of the major causes of that tax gap, and a big reason why is that the automatic reporting and strict rules that apply to typical working taxpayers do not apply to many at the top whose income is derived from opaque business structures.
It’s yet another way the tax system is mandatory for the working person, and voluntary for the billionaire. Working people pay their taxes voluntarily because they know their employer is sending those numbers to the IRS. The wealthy business owners are on the honor system… Democrats want to fix this broken approach and crack down on the cheating at the top.”
―Senator Ron Wyden
Cracking down on wealthy tax cheats is a significant part of how the Build Back Better plan’s historic investments are funded, and the bank reporting proposal is a critical part of that effort.
Biden’s bank reporting requirement would have banks identify accounts that have more than $10,000 in annual deposits or withdrawals—not counting your wage income—so the IRS can figure out if the income flowing into an account is consistent with what the taxpayer is reporting on their tax returns.[1]
The bank reporting requirement would enable the IRS to better spot wealthy tax cheats so it can pursue them rather than ordinary taxpayers who are paying what they owe. Here’s what it would do:
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Crack down on tax cheating by giving the IRS an ability to spot hidden income, especially the opaque forms of income that goes disproportionately to the wealthy
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Encourage wealthy people who under-report their income to stop doing so, so they do not run afoul of the law
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Establish fairness for regular workers, whose wages are already reported to the IRS every year, and honest small businesses
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Reduce unnecessary audits of regular workers and honest taxpayers
Big banks and the right-wing are spreading disinformation about President Biden’s plan to allow the IRS to better track down wealthy tax cheats, trying to scare regular taxpayers into thinking they’re the target. This proposal protects taxpayer privacy and does not apply to small accounts or regular workers’ wages.
Stop Wall Street from protecting wealthy tax cheats. Pitch in today to counter Big Bank and right-wing disinformation and make sure President Biden’s proposal to stop wealthy tax cheats is passed.
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Thank you for fighting to unrig our tax system and demand the wealthy start paying what they owe!
Andrea Haverdink
Digital Director
Americans for Tax Fairness
[1] “Democrats to scale back Treasury’s IRS bank reporting plan amid GOP uproar,” The Washington Post, Oct. 18, 2021
