Rep. Charlie Crist (D-Fla.) today announced that he opposes the Biden administration’s controversial IRS data reporting proposal—becoming the first Democrat to push back publicly on the ABA-opposed measure that congressional leaders continue to push via the budget reconciliation process.
“Floridians depend on their banks and credit unions to secure more than just deposits. They depend on them to safeguard their personal information,” Crist said. “I am deeply concerned about the proposal to expand IRS reporting requirements for bank accounts. Working people with $10,000 in annual deposits are hardly the top 1%. Allowing the IRS to data mine checking accounts raises serious privacy red flags and would increase costs, while targeting hardworking Floridians who are already struggling to get by. I will not support any IRS account reporting requirements that go after the middle class and working families. That dog won’t hunt.”
While Crist is the first Democrat in Congress to formally express opposition, others have raised concerns—including fellow Florida Democrat Rep. Stephanie Murphy, who told the ABA Annual Convention on Monday that the proposal “gives me pause,” adding that it would be a “really dangerous paradigm for us to create these sorts of disclosure requirements and other incentives that shifts your bankers away from focusing on their core business model.”
The controversial proposal—which the American Bankers Association has aggressively fought—would require financial institutions to report information on gross inflows and outflows for all accounts above a revised $10,000 de minimis threshold, with certain carve-outs—though no details have yet been provided on how flow calculations would work.
