BPI, Joint Trades: New IRS Reporting Requirements Would Bring Unnecessary Complexity, Limited Benefits

BPI, Joint Trades: New IRS Reporting Requirements Would Bring Unnecessary Complexity, Limited Benefits

Requiring banks to give the IRS data on account inflows and outflows would complicate tax enforcement and provide only limited benefits, BPI, ABA and other financial trades wrote in a letter to the Senate Finance Committee’s Subcommittee on Taxation and IRS Oversight this week. The additional reporting requirements, proposed by the White House to target tax evasion and fund a broad childcare spending plan, would have privacy and fairness implications and could put financial institutions in an untenable position with their account holders, the letter states. A more effective approach would be to boost IRS funding to facilitate targeted audits of questionable tax returns, it says.