Luke Gentile of the Washington Examiner highlights one Republican senator’s efforts to fight intrusive Biden administration plans.
Sen. Bill Hagerty, a Tennessee Republican, introduced the Stop the Nosy Obsession with Online Payments Act on Tuesday to eliminate a tax code provision in President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan that would mandate third-party payment processors report business transactions of users exceeding $600.
Prior to Biden’s American Rescue Plan, third-party payment platforms, including Venmo, PayPal, and Cash App, were only required to report the gross income of payees who had over 200 distinct transactions that exceeded $20,000 to the Internal Revenue Service.
Under the president’s new tax provision, which went into effect last month, thousands of small businesses will be forced to file 1099-Ks with personal information to the IRS.
This places a large number of people at risk given “the IRS’ poor history of safeguarding Americans’ personal data,” according to a press release shared exclusively with the Washington Examiner.
“The Biden Administration is relentless in their attempt to invade the privacy of Americans’ lives and finances,” Hagerty said.
“It is regrettable that this Administration insists on advancing their perilous and oppressive political agenda to the detriment of taxpayers’ privacy, heedless of their failed track record of protecting Americans’ confidential data. It is past time we stand up for our small business owners and say ‘no more snooping’ to this administration’s egregious and unwarranted overreach.”
The Tennessee Republican and member of the Senate Banking Committee is leading the push for the SNOOP Act with a group of GOP senators determined to stymie the Biden administration’s “intrusive” policymaking that they said hinders small businesses and makes life harder for taxpayers.
The president’s current tax code drives up the cost of business for small businesses and independent contractors, raising taxes on the very people Biden promised he would not burden, Sen. Rick Scott, a Florida Republican, said.