Policymakers in Washington have proposed requiring financial institutions to report information and activity to the IRS for ALL accounts holding more than $600, regardless of the customers’ consent.

While community banks do not endorse such broad IRS access to their customer’s account information, consumers need to be aware of the potential effects of this proposal.

The unprecedented access to consumers’ personal financial data raises several alarms:

• This proposal would violate consumers’ personal privacy by forcing all financial institutions to provide the government with information that does not reflect taxable activity.
• This reporting would overload the IRS with more personal information about American citizens than their data system is able to store and secure, therefore increasing the likelihood of a future data breach.
• Financial institutions,  particularly those in rural and low-income communities, would face unnecessary and expensive regulatory hurdles that could make it difficult to meet the needs of local consumers.

Let Congress know your privacy matters.  To access contact information and a drafted letter visit https://icba.quorum.us/campaign/IRSprivacy/