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Legislative Update with Jay Kruse by Jay Kruse, Chief Advocacy Officer Happy Wednesday and belated Labor Day! While Labor Day pays tribute to American workers it also symbolizes the end of summer, so I hope everyone enjoyed a relaxing summer day on Monday that involved absolutely zero labor, in the spirit of the holiday, of course! Both the House and Senate are still at recess this week; however, House committee work continues with the scheduled markups on portions of reconciliation legislation. The Ways and Means Committee is unofficially expected to begin their markup on Thursday which will likely include a proposal by the Biden Administration and Treasury Department to require financial institutions to report additional account holder information including the inflows and outflows of funds to accounts that hold more than $600. Tell Congress to Oppose New IRS Reporting Provisions Along with CUNA, we are issuing an Action Alert calling on credit union advocates to oppose new IRS reporting provisions requiring financial institutions to provide additional detailed account holder information. We encourage you to share this action alert with your staff, your board, and your members. While we are asking you to support this Action Alert reaching out to our Dakota Congressmen Dusty Johnson (R-SD) and Kelly Armstrong (R-ND), we have also reached out to both offices to ask for their support and signatures for a “Dear Colleague” Letter addressed to Speaker Pelosi, Ways and Means Chairman Neal, Treasury Secretary Yellen, and IRS Commission Rettig, which also opposes these new proposed IRS reporting provisions. I am happy to report the Congressman Johnson has agreed to sign on to the letter, and while we are still waiting to hear back on a decision from Congressman Armstrong, we do believe he also supports our position on this issue. As negotiations around the partisan $3.5 trillion “human infrastructure” package heat up, the Biden Administration has proposed this new IRS requirement of reporting account inflows and outflows as a “payfor,” with the hopes the IRS would be able to use this enormous data grab to identify unreported taxable income, which would then be used to cover the huge $3.5 trillion price tag the package carries. This reckless proposal is not clear as to how the IRS plans or thinks it can use this data to accomplish its goal, on top of the fact the IRS and federal government in general doesn’t have a stellar track record of protecting taxpayer data. The Background Let me give you a little history on this Administration’s proposal that dates all the way back to April of this year. That is when the White House and President Biden unveiled the American Families Plan which is where this proposal to require the reporting of additional account holder information to the IRS was first introduced. To follow up on this proposal, CUNA wrote a letter in May to the Senate Finance Subcommittee expressing our concerns. Fast forward to August, when CUNA wrote in strong support of an amendment offered by Sen Mike Crapo (R-ID) to the Senate Budget Resolution that would have blocked expanding taxpayer information reporting requirements for financial institutions. This amendment was in direct response the Administration’s IRS reporting proposal but was unfortunately voted down along party lines on a 50-49 vote. Now this provision has the potential to become reality as negotiations in both the Democrat lead House and Senate begin this week and continue into next. We will continue to stay active on this issue as negotiations continue, however I am confident the entire Dakotas Congressional Delegation is on our side regarding this issue. Again, we urge you to share this Action Alert with your staff, your board, and your members. Take Action and contact your members of Congress today! As always, don't hesitate to contact me at jkruse@dakcu.org with any questions or comments.
Legislative Update with Jay Kruse
by Jay Kruse, Chief Advocacy Officer
Happy Wednesday and belated Labor Day! While Labor Day pays tribute to American workers it also symbolizes the end of summer, so I hope everyone enjoyed a relaxing summer day on Monday that involved absolutely zero labor, in the spirit of the holiday, of course!
Both the House and Senate are still at recess this week; however, House committee work continues with the scheduled markups on portions of reconciliation legislation. The Ways and Means Committee is unofficially expected to begin their markup on Thursday which will likely include a proposal by the Biden Administration and Treasury Department to require financial institutions to report additional account holder information including the inflows and outflows of funds to accounts that hold more than $600.
Tell Congress to Oppose New IRS Reporting Provisions
Along with CUNA, we are issuing an Action Alert calling on credit union advocates to oppose new IRS reporting provisions requiring financial institutions to provide additional detailed account holder information. We encourage you to share this action alert with your staff, your board, and your members.
While we are asking you to support this Action Alert reaching out to our Dakota Congressmen Dusty Johnson (R-SD) and Kelly Armstrong (R-ND), we have also reached out to both offices to ask for their support and signatures for a “Dear Colleague” Letter addressed to Speaker Pelosi, Ways and Means Chairman Neal, Treasury Secretary Yellen, and IRS Commission Rettig, which also opposes these new proposed IRS reporting provisions. I am happy to report the Congressman Johnson has agreed to sign on to the letter, and while we are still waiting to hear back on a decision from Congressman Armstrong, we do believe he also supports our position on this issue.
As negotiations around the partisan $3.5 trillion “human infrastructure” package heat up, the Biden Administration has proposed this new IRS requirement of reporting account inflows and outflows as a “payfor,” with the hopes the IRS would be able to use this enormous data grab to identify unreported taxable income, which would then be used to cover the huge $3.5 trillion price tag the package carries. This reckless proposal is not clear as to how the IRS plans or thinks it can use this data to accomplish its goal, on top of the fact the IRS and federal government in general doesn’t have a stellar track record of protecting taxpayer data.
The Background
Let me give you a little history on this Administration’s proposal that dates all the way back to April of this year. That is when the White House and President Biden unveiled the American Families Plan which is where this proposal to require the reporting of additional account holder information to the IRS was first introduced. To follow up on this proposal, CUNA wrote a letter in May to the Senate Finance Subcommittee expressing our concerns.
Fast forward to August, when CUNA wrote in strong support of an amendment offered by Sen Mike Crapo (R-ID) to the Senate Budget Resolution that would have blocked expanding taxpayer information reporting requirements for financial institutions. This amendment was in direct response the Administration’s IRS reporting proposal but was unfortunately voted down along party lines on a 50-49 vote. Now this provision has the potential to become reality as negotiations in both the Democrat lead House and Senate begin this week and continue into next.
We will continue to stay active on this issue as negotiations continue, however I am confident the entire Dakotas Congressional Delegation is on our side regarding this issue. Again, we urge you to share this Action Alert with your staff, your board, and your members.
Take Action and contact your members of Congress today!
As always, don't hesitate to contact me at jkruse@dakcu.org with any questions or comments.