Not Good New IRS Policy: Memo for President Biden: Please Reverse this ASAP

 

I am convinced this is not well-thought-out policy

This story is about bank deposits of $600 that are to be monitored by the IRS under new rules to see if it’s a crooked transaction or not.

The first part of this story is here from a NBC 13News story with this headline:

“IRS monitoring $600 accounts likely to snare small businesses, under-the-table workers”

Background leading up to this story is here:  A Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) is a document that financial institutions, and those associated with their business, must file with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) whenever there is a suspected case of money laundering or fraud. 

These reports are tools to help monitor any activity within finance-related industries that is deemed out of the ordinary, a precursor of illegal activity, or might threaten public safety.

So, who regulates suspicious activity reports?​

Suspicious activity reports are a tool provided by the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) of 1970. 

Originally called a “criminal referral form” the SAR became the standard form to report suspicious activity in 1996. 

Mainly used to help financial institutions detect and report known or suspected violations, the USA Patriot Act expanded SAR requirements to help combat domestic and global terrorism. 

Whether financial or otherwise, SARs enable law enforcement agencies to uncover and prosecute significant money laundering, criminal financial schemes, and other illegal endeavors. SARs give governments an opportunity to spot and analyze emerging trends and patterns across a broad spectrum of personal and organized crimes. 

With this knowledge, they can anticipate and counteract fraudulent and criminal behavior before it gains a foothold.

When is a suspicious activity report required?

This part of the updated story continues here.​

The reason for this sudden change is seen here:

At least 55 of the largest corporations in America paid no federal corporate income taxes in their most recent fiscal year despite enjoying substantial pretax profits in the United States. 

This continues a decades-long trend of corporate tax avoidance by the biggest U.S. corporations, and it appears to be the product of long-standing tax breaks preserved or expanded by the Trump-era 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) (with only GOP votes BTW) as well as the CARES Act tax breaks enacted in the spring of 2020 (under Biden recently) - two totally different bills with different targets to benefit (GOP: top 10% - DEM: Most average needy American families).

The tax-avoiding companies represent various industries and collectively enjoyed almost $40.5 billion in U.S. pretax income in 2020, according to their annual financial reports. 

The statutory federal tax rate for corporate profits is 21%. The 55 corporations would have paid a collective total of $8.5 billion for the year had they paid that rate on their 2020 income. 

Instead, they received $3.5 billion in tax rebates. 

Their total corporate tax breaks for 2020, including $8.5 billion in tax avoidance and $3.5 billion in rebates, comes to $12 billion.

This report is based on ITEP’s analysis of annual financial reports filed by the nation’s largest publicly traded U.S.-based corporations in their most recent fiscal year. 

All data presented here come directly from the income tax notes of these reports. Some companies with unusual fiscal years have not yet filed such reports.

Note: Some publicly traded corporations paid nothing on profits in their most recent fiscal year but are not included in this report because they are not part of the S&P 500 or the Fortune 500.

No-Tax Corporations Continue a Decades-Long Trend – the rest of that story continues from the ITEP link above and here.

My 2 Cents: Right up front - I don't agree with it entirely going down to $600.00 - not one bit.

There has to be a more rational, logical, common sense approach to catching the tax evaders and not someone who comes into say $700.00 and puts it in the bank and then IRS comes crashing in their home as if they were a modern day Al Capone.

This is in my view truly overreach. So, my Memo for President Biden is this: Sir, relook at this policy change and please reverse course. As it stands now, and from my research, this is not a good move, and it certainly not a good look for you and the DEMS, which also happens to be my lifelong party, too. Right now, many average Americans who many have $601.00 to deposit are starting to be a nervous wreck about this new rule. Please give it serious consideration and thank you in advance.

Now we wait and to see what happens. But, hey, maybe President Biden will actually read this post, you think? (Huge smile included).

Thanks for stopping by.