在遭到共和党议员和银行业代表的广泛批评后，拜登政府周二放弃了一项有争议的提议，该提议要求国税局收集每个年度交易超过600美元的银行账户的额外数据。共和党议员和银行业代表表示，税收执法战略代表着联邦政府侵犯隐私。

相反，政府和参议院民主党人提议提高年度交易超过1万美元的账户的门槛，任何通过自动扣除联邦税收的支票获得的收入都不受该报告的约束。失业和社会保障等联邦福利的领取者也将被豁免。

国税局将收集银行账户中超过10，000美元非工资收入的存款和取款总额。不会收集单个交易的信息。

财政部周二宣布了这些变化。

“为了回应对范围的考虑，它(国会)制定了一个新的方法，包括对工薪阶层和联邦计划受益人的豁免。根据这一修订后的方法，这些赚取收入者可以完全脱离报告结构。这是一个理由充分的修改:对于美国工人和退休人员来说，国税局已经有了关于工资和薪金收入以及他们获得的联邦福利的信息，”财政部关于这些变化的概况介绍说。

这些变化将免除数百万美国人的报告要求，并帮助国税局锁定更富裕的美国人，特别是那些从投资、房地产和其他国税局更难追踪的交易中赚钱的人。

“在目前的制度下，美国工人几乎支付了所有的税款，而许多高收入者通过利用这一制度避免支付他们欠下的数十亿美元的税款。问题的核心是向国税局报告收入类型的方式存在差异:不透明的收入来源经常逃避审查，而工资和联邦福利通常几乎完全合规。这种两级税制是不公平的，剥夺了国家资助核心优先事项的资源，”财政部长珍妮特·耶伦在一份声明中说。

迈克尔·雷诺兹/环保局，通过Shutterstock，FILE

美国财政部长珍妮特·耶伦在一次会议上看着乔·拜登总统讲话...

耶伦说:“今天的新提议反映了政府的坚定信念，即我们应该瞄准那些收入最高的人，他们没有缴纳他们欠下的税款，同时通过将银行账户门槛设置为1万美元，并为教师和消防员等工薪阶层提供豁免来保护美国工人。

概况介绍说，“想象一下，一个纳税人报告了10，000美元的收入;但是有1000万美元的资金流入流出他们的银行账户。当高收入人群少报收入(和少交税款)时，拥有这些汇总信息将有助于向国税局报警。这将有助于国税局将其执法活动的目标锁定在那些实际上逃避纳税义务的人身上，从而减少对绝大多数纳税者的高成本、高负担的审计。”

该提案离颁布还有很长的路要走。它目前被纳入数万亿美元的社会支出计划，立法者和白宫已经谈判了几个月。如果该方案获得通过并签署成为法律，该要求要到2022年12月才能开始实施。

参议院财政委员会主席罗恩·怀登·多雷。带头修改提案的共和党人对共和党人声称的目标是窥探美国人的金融交易提出质疑。

“底线是，富有的税务骗子每年从美国人民身上榨取数十亿美元。当适用于税务欺诈的报告规则松散且模糊不清时，税务欺诈就会猖獗。民主党人希望修复这种破碎的方法，并打击高层的欺骗行为，”怀登在周二宣布这一消息的新闻发布会上说。

怀登明确表示，即使是可能购买超过10，000美元的大宗商品的美国人也不会受到额外报告的影响。

“如果你的工资、社会保障收入或类似收入没有超出1万美元，就没有额外的报告。我们还讨论了一个场景，其中一个人花了大量的积蓄进行一次大采购。在这种情况下不会有额外的报告，只要进入账户的金额不超过工资+1万美元，”怀登说。

政府没有具体说明这些变化是否会影响他们通过强制执行可能获得的额外税收。美国政府估计，改善税收执法可能会在未来十年带来高达6000亿美元的额外税收。

最初的提议将影响美国几乎所有非休眠银行账户，引起了共和党议员的愤怒，他们称这是对隐私的侵犯，也是政府过度干预的一个例子。即使对提案进行了修改，参议院的共和党人仍然持批评态度。

“那么，他们需要多长时间才能说，‘嗯，你知道，我们需要更多一点的信息，因为我们真的无法充分利用这一点。’然后他们会想要个人交易，谁知道呢，”共和党参议员约翰·图恩告诉记者。

爱达荷州参议员迈克·克拉波(Mike Crapo)援引拜登总统的承诺，即不对任何收入低于40万美元的美国人增税，这表明美国国税局的报告应该适用这一门槛。

“他们为什么不在那里放一个禁令，禁止国税局窥探收入低于40万美元的人的账户?这是我认为应该向这种方法的发起人提出的问题，”克拉波说。

克拉波很难给出一个替代方法来缩小税收差距的例子，除了提到“堵塞漏洞”。

银行业代表仍对任何额外的报告要求持怀疑态度，称这将造成负担，尤其是对较小的社区银行而言。

Biden admin backs down on tracking bank accounts with over $600 annual transactions

The Biden administration on Tuesday backed down on a controversial proposal to direct the IRS to collect additional data on every bank account that sees more than $600 in annual transactions, after widespread criticism from Republican lawmakers and banking industry representatives, who said the tax enforcement strategy represented a breach of privacy by the federal government.

Instead, the administration and Senate Democrats are proposing to raise the threshold to accounts with more than $10,000 in annual transactions, and any income received through a paycheck from which federal taxes are automatically deducted will not be subject to the reporting. Recipients of federal benefits like unemployment and Social Security would also be exempt.

The IRS would collect the total sum of deposits and withdrawals from bank accounts with more than $10,000 in non-payroll income. Information on individual transactions would not be collected.

The changes were announced Tuesday by the Treasury Department.

"In response to considerations about scope, it [Congress] has crafted a new approach to include an exemption for wage and salary earners and federal program beneficiaries. Under this revised approach, such earners can be completely carved out of the reporting structure. This is a well-reasoned modification: for American workers and retirees, the IRS already has information on wage and salary income and the federal benefits they receive," a Treasury Department fact sheet on the changes said.

The changes would exempt millions of Americans from the reporting requirement, and help the IRS target wealthier Americans, especially those who earn money from investments, real estate, and other transactions that are more difficult for the IRS to track.

"Under the current system, American workers pay virtually all their tax bills while many top earners avoid paying billions in the taxes they owe by exploiting the system. At the core of the problem is a discrepancy in the ways types of income are reported to the IRS: opaque income sources frequently avoid scrutiny while wages and federal benefits are typically subject to nearly full compliance. This two-tiered tax system is unfair and deprives the country of resources to fund core priorities," Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement.

"Today’s new proposal reflects the Administration’s strong belief that we should zero in on those at the top of the income scale who don’t pay the taxes they owe, while protecting American workers by setting the bank account threshold at $10,000 and providing an exemption for wage earners like teachers and firefighters," Yellen said.

The fact sheet says, "Imagine a taxpayer who reports $10,000 of income; but has $10 million of flows in and out of their bank account. Having this summary information will help flag for the IRS when high-income people under-report their income (and under-pay their tax obligations). This will help the IRS target its enforcement activities on those who are actually evading their tax obligations—decreasing costly and burdensome audits for the vast majority of taxpayers who pay what they owe."

The proposal is a long way from being enacted. It's currently included in a multi-trillion dollar social spending package lawmakers and the White House have been negotiating for months. If that package is passed and signed into law, the requirement wouldn't begin until December 2022.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden D-Ore., who spearheaded the effort to revise the proposal, dispute Republican claims that the goal is to snoop on Americans' financial transactions.

"The bottom line is, wealthy tax cheats are ripping off the American people to the tune of billions and billions of dollars per year. Tax cheats thrive when the reporting rules that apply to them are loose and murky. Democrats want to fix this broken approach and crack down on the cheating at the top," Wyden said in a press conference on the announcement Tuesday.

Wyden made clear that even Americans who might make a large purchase over $10,000 wouldn't be subject to the additional reporting.

"If you don’t have $10,000 above your paycheck, Social Security income, or the like coming in or going out, there’s no additional reporting. We’ve also addressed the scenario where an individual spends a significant amount of savings for a major purchase. There will be no additional reporting in this scenario, as long as the amount of money coming into the account does not exceed wages +$10,000," Wyden said.

The administration did not specify if the changes will impact the additional tax revenue they might be able to collect through enforcement. The administration has estimated improved tax enforcement could net up to $600 billion in additional tax revenue over the next decade.

The initial proposal, which would have affected nearly every non-dormant bank account in the U.S., raised the ire of Republican lawmakers, who called it a breach of privacy and an example of government overreach. Even with the revisions to the proposal, Republicans in the Senate remained critical.

"So how long is it gonna take for them to say, 'Well you know we need a little bit more information because we really can't make much of this.' Then they're going to want individual transactions and who knows what," Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters.

Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, cited President Biden's commitment not to raise taxes on any American making less than $400,000, suggesting that threshold ought to be applied to IRS reporting.

“Why don't they just put a ban in there that bans the IRS from snooping in the accounts of people who make less than $400,000? That's the question I think that should be asked with the sponsors of this approach," Crapo said.

Crapo was hard-pressed to give an example of an alternative way to close the tax gap other than to say mention “closing loopholes.”

Banking industry representatives remain skeptical of any additional reporting requirement, saying it will create a burden, especially for smaller community banks.