So much for financial privacy (what’s left of it)

 

Looks like Big Brother is getting even bigger and more intrusive.  The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) warns of a new IRS push for more data on bank accounts and transactions.

The proposal would require financial institutions to report information on customer bank accounts to the IRS. This would be an enormous burden on the community banks required to furnish this information and a breach of their customers’ privacy.  

Specifically, the proposed fiscal 2022 budget would require banks and other financial institutions to report to the IRS on the deposits and withdrawals of all business and personal accounts with a balance of more than $600.

There’s more at the link.

Think about it.  That’s likely to include almost every bank account in the country, because if your wages or salary are deposited into your account, its balance is likely to exceed $600 at least once every month.  Bingo! – you’ve been caught up in this gargantuan data trawling net.  Literally every deposit and every withdrawal – including every check you write, or every payment to a credit card, or every ACH transfer to pay a bill – will be scrutinized.  That also gives the IRS – and, by extension, any other government department that wants it – the ability to build up a complete picture of your financial activity, down to your credit card transactions (for which you pay from your bank account, in the end).

Privacy?  What privacy?  Big Brother is watching you, whether you like it or not, and you’d better learn to enjoy it!

Peter

13 comments

  1. Just think of it; those of us who have s*** canned social media because of intrusiveness will now get even more of personal lives vacuumed up the Fed.gov than social media was doing. And there's no way out, no way around it, no alternative.

    Since when is it permissible for them to know every financial detail of our lives?

  2. This is their end run around the need to obtain a warrant to view your financial transactions. Hopefully, some organization will see it as such, and file suit to stop it.

  3. "The proposal would require financial institutions to report information on customer bank accounts to the IRS. "
    I think someone left off the "all" before "customer bank accounts."🤣

  4. Such proviso cannot stand against the 4th Amendment. Assuming of course, that the U.S. Constitution means anything anymore.

    Hark, my brethern. If the Rule of Law be dead, if the co-equal branches may act unfettered and without regard of one another, then why should not The People so dispose themselves equally? It is since the foundation of the Republic, after all, that The People so named, of all institutions named in the Constitution, is superior to any other. It is the sovereign right of The People to restore the Rule of Law. It is the duty of The People to act thus.

    Proposed is yet another avenue of WAR upon your Republic. Arise! Arise and fight by whatsoever rules of engagement you deem as proper.

  5. Cash transactions over a certain amount are reported. I think it was $1000.00 that triggered a report. Then if you kept it a few dollars under a grand, it was called "smurfing" as I recall. Then they made that into "suspicious transactions" if I remember correctly. Of course all of this record keeping will be kept private, right? Sure.
    Lord help us.

  6. I doubt the IRS has the bandwidth to make use of most of this data. They already can't man their help lines or process returns in a timely manner.

    But if they have this much capability, I suggest we help them utilize it. First, stop e-filing your returns. Fill them out by hand and mail them a copy. Second, if they do start sweeping up all this data, do what you can to double or triple the amount they have to handle. Make daily withdrawals and then redeposit it. Heck, maybe a couple times a day. Or just move it back and forth from checking to savings. Drown the MF's in useless data.

  7. I have seen several proposals to ban cash transactions. I think there has been some proposals to convert dollars to a digital format and make paper currency no longer valid after a grace period to turn in cash to the bank! Don’t know what the think they would do when the machines go down from things like Ida?

  8. The limit on reporting cash transactions is $10,000 . I now leave enough the bank to pay my bills electronically and by 2 or 3 checks per month. If this goes through, I will withdraw it all in cash and pay my bills with cash just to be an asshole. There is nothing secret about my bills anyway, just a water bill, electric and phone bills, but none of the government's fucking business.

  9. Banks will go along with it, cheerfully. Gonna cost a lot to do all that monitoring, so, you know….MOAR FEES!

  10. Start with as much cash-only transactions as you can manage.

    Gradually transition to pure black- and gray-market economy.

    Including crypto-currency.

    Make them work for every byte of data.

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