All right, I feel I must come clean. Biden looked at my bank account. He was not impressed, but he said not to worry, he was looking at everybody’s. No judgement. He even told me that he’d probably not even remember me and my laughable bank account.
No, it’s true. I got the below official notice from the White House earlier this week:
DEAR SIR OR MADAM:
I AM MOST HONORED JOSEPH BIDEN HAVE NEED OF RESPECTFUL AND HONEST PERSON LIKE YOURSELF TRANSFER FUNDS FROM TREASURY FOR VERY IMPORTANT TRANSACTION. PLEASE PROVIDE BANK ACCOUNT INFORMATION AND I PROVIDE 40% OF TRANSACTION AS MOST GRACIOUS REWARD FOR ASSISTANCE.
Even when we’ve got legitimate concerns about something that “politicians of whatever stripe” are doing (which is always reasonable, even without the specific and bizarre cite-free accusations you’re making about Biden in particular), that’s a completely crap justification for the dimwitted position that politicians shouldn’t be trying to do anything.
Yes, political parties and individual candidates should have governing agendas, and We the People need to keep monitoring them and pushing back on the parts of them we don’t approve of. Simply declaring that politicians shouldn’t have an agenda at all is not an acceptable alternative for grownups in a democracy.
Man, you know that weakass shit don’t fly here! I don’t care if you’re on the Left or on the Right, that’s newby, 8th post ever, lameness.
Biden’s $3.5 Trillion Build Back Better agenda, AND the proposed bank reporting scheme.
Gross inflows and outflows over a set amount, although not individual transactions. Initially, the minimum amount was set at only $600, which would affect pretty much anyone with a bank account. Congressional negotiators are now proposing $10,000 but even that is overly broad in my opinion. If a retiree receives $1200 month in SS benefits, that will exceed the $10,000.
Uh, the point of the bank tax reporting scheme described in your linked article is precisely to get that $3.5 trillion (I guess calling it “$3.5 Trillion dollars” makes it extra dollary?) that we currently should have, but can’t get hold of because of all the fatcats cheating on their taxes. Did you read your own cite?
So the retiree on SS is likely cheating on her taxes? $600 is certainly not de minimis, and neither is $10,000.
No, not likely. As I said, you could learn a lot about this issue by reading your own cited article:
The “multiple accounts” aspect is also a bit of a red herring. I have multiple accounts, at different banks, largely due to varying interest rates. For example, I have one account for everyday transactions at a low rate, but money in other accounts, at higher rates. Sometimes, I transfer money between the two. Is that an indication of tax cheating? Or I just had a CD come due, and I moved $15K into a different bank. The horrors!
This is about as accurate as stating “So bananas cause cancer?”
Then why should the IRS bother with collecting information about her account?
Why should the IRS bother with collecting information about the income of someone who made only $600? After all, it’s not likely that person is cheating on their taxes.
The answer is that it makes it harder to cheat. And if it’s harder to cheat, compliance goes up, leading to more taxes paid by cheaters - especially rich ones.
The most popular Republicans in Congress among the Republican media and support base are morons. Absolute morons. It’s actually the so-called “RINOs” who played a part in negotiating the bipartisan deal on infrastructure with Biden whereas the Trump sycophants sit around and do nothing but whinge.
Someone else wrote about when the bipartisan deal was passed and even Mitch McConnell of all people voted in support that the common attack line from the Trump lovers in Congress was “this bill only has 6-7% towards roads and bridges” to explain their vote as voting against the rest of the bill. Well in that case why didn’t you all come together and put forward a bill that only matches the funding for roads and bridges but excludes the rest? None of them did it because that would require actual legislating and real work.
I think you’re overacting, BUT what If the IRS learns that you moved money, so what? What penalty do you believe you will suffer if the IRS learns that?
So the speed limit should apply to all drivers?
But if your “retiree” has 40 different accounts into each of which she is depositing $9,999 a month, while claiming an income $1200, then perhaps the IRS should know about it.
In practice your actual retiree will have the bank send a note that she deposited $14,400 into her account that year to an IRS computer which will glance at it, see that everything is Kosher and go on to the next one.
What harm is retiree the suffering?
What compelling government interest do they have? They already get the information on the 1099-INT for interest payments greater than $10.00 in a year. That’s taxable income. I claim that amount on my 1040, and pay income tax on said amount. Fair enough.
Why do they need more information than that? Transferring money between my own accounts (such as checking to savings, or credit union A to bank B) is not a taxable event.
They don’t care about that. They will see 15K removed from one account, and see 15K added to another account and call it a day. But if they see 500K cumulatively added to your accounts, that wasn’t included in any of your declared income they might ask you for an explanation.
Speed cameras test the speed of cars even if they are going the speed limit, airport metal detectors check carry ons that don’t contain weapons or bombs, the ATM asks for my pin number even when I’m not trying to steal money from someone else’s account. In order to find the people with undeclared income they need to look at everyone and then flag those who appear to have a lot more income than they said they did.
Speaking of scary government surveillance of our finances. I know this is going to come as a shock to you D_Anconia so you may want to sit down, but the government has even turned your employer into a government informer, every year they send a report to the government that tells them your salary. 
The only difference between that and what they are doing now is that this might include some income you might have that wasn’t part of your salary, captial gains, interest or dividends but which you may owe taxes on, say, for example, your independent cash only pharmaceutical entrepreneurship.
I’m kind of disappointed. D_Anconia promised me that Joe Biden himself was going to look into my bank accounts, but now you’re telling me that it’s just some IRS computers that already know what is happening in my accounts through other channels. That’s a let down.
Ladies and gentlemen, I have found the next Republican superstar: Scott Pio, running for the Virginia state legislature.
“I’m curious, Do you think the sea level would lower, if we just took all the boats out of the water? Just a thought, not a statement,”
If that wasn’t enough, he later elaborated:
“When you take things out of bath water, the bath water decreases, does it not? Got a lot of hate from your group for asking a question about taking things out of the water. Curious when you stopped believing in pure physics? I guess you don’t believe in science experiments?”
This guy is presidential timber if I ever saw it. Rising oceans? No worry, just get all the boats out of the water. Genius!