The IRS Wants To Spy On YOUR Bank Account

By 

Jay Sekulow

|
October 21, 2021

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is trying to encroach on your privacy and snoop into your bank account. We’ve already caught the IRS targeting Christians and conservatives. We took them to court and we won. Fast forward to only a couple of years later and, under a new Administration, they are right back doing what they were ordered not to do. I recently testified at a congressional roundtable before Members of the House Ways and Means Committee over weaponization of the IRS by targeting individuals once again and addressed the latest unconstitutional attempt to snoop on your bank account.

This time, the IRS is going after your bank transactions. The threshold was $600, which could be subject to an IRS review of that transaction. After the hearing, the Biden Administration and the Left in Congress backpedaled and put forth a new proposal. Because of the public outcry after the hearing, the limit has now been increased to $10,000. That is not any better. In fact, it’s worse. Now, it’s not a one-time transaction; this number is cumulative $10,000 over the course of a year. Think about what you spend on food, groceries, bills, mortgage or rent, etc. For most Americans, this will add up to more than $10,000 a year – which means the IRS would then have unfettered access to rifle through your bank account looking for whatever it wants. Keep in mind, the IRS would be doing this without a warrant or probable cause. Why are we giving the IRS this authority? I don’t care if it’s $10, the IRS has no business looking in your bank account. It’s your money.

ACLJ Director of Policy Harry Hutchison puts this proposal into reality:

Keep this in mind. The average family of four spends approximately $1,400 a month on food, that is $16,000 a year. That exceeds the $10,000 a year threshold that the IRS would receive under the legislation proposed by the Democrats. This means potentially Susan Rice, AOC, and Elizabeth Warren would have access to information about your income and your transactions, and this empowers the IRS to have full blooded control of each and every transaction in your daily life.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen tried to defend this tracking by the IRS:

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.

This threshold is not for only those at the top of the income scale. These are everyday Americans who pay rent, buy groceries, or otherwise do ordinary things that can easily add up to $10,000 over the course of a year. Consider this: if you pay roughly $835 or more per month for your rent or mortgage alone, your bank accounts will become fair game for the IRS.

Do you tithe to your church? If that combined with all your other expenses adds up to $10,000 a year, the IRS will be able to investigate you. And we’ve seen before what the IRS will do with that kind of power over Christians and conservatives.

ACLJ Senior Counsel for Global Affairs and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo discussed this weaponization of the IRS:

You all at the ACLJ have been all over this for years. I witnessed it personally when I was a Member of Congress six, seven years ago. I watched the IRS go after conservative groups. . . . This is taking a tool of governmental power and using it in a way that is immoral and deeply inconsistent with our Constitution. We’ve got to stop what they are trying to do here. When you put those kinds of limits on, you are talking about 90 plus percent of Americans who have banking accounts will be subject to IRS scrutiny in ways that will be looking for political activities. . . . It is just such a great risk to hand this over to bureaucrats. We have to stop it, and now is the moment.

A lot has changed in the last year with a new Administration. Within a couple of months of the Biden Administration taking office, the IRS started targeting Christians, and Congress has been debating whether to fund our ally Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system. Sec. Pompeo discusses in his new article the change in the relationship between Israel and the United States. He just got back from Israel and further explained how Israelis are currently feeling about the U.S.:

The vast majority of senior Israelis in government, in and out of government, just ordinary people, are very worried about the relationship between the United States and Israel. They watched Democrats refuse to underwrite the Iron Dome. And then they flipped the next day. Which was a simple task to help protect ordinary Israeli citizens and, frankly, Americans who are in Israel every day, protect themselves from Iranian rocket fire from the Gaza strip. . . . That’s just dangerous for the region and for the world.

The Biden Administration is leading America into a dangerous world. They have allowed the debate for defending our greatest ally in the Middle East, and they have allowed the IRS to be weaponized once again. We are not going to let this bill become law. This is IRS abuse, to say the least. We are going to fight in the halls of Congress and in the courts to stop this from happening. We’ve won before and we’ll do it again.

Today’s full Sekulow broadcast is complete with even more analysis of the IRS trying to spy on American's bank transactions.

Watch the full broadcast below.

And take action with us by telling Congress, No spying on our bank accounts.