WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators John Barrasso and Cynthia Lummis, both R-Wyo., joined U.S. Senator Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) and their Republican colleagues in reintroducing the Stop the Nosy Obsession with Online Payments (SNOOP) Act.
This bill would strike the tax code provision inserted by the Biden administration in the so-called “American Rescue Plan” that requires third-party payment platforms to report businesses’ transactions volumes totaling more than $600 to the Internal Revenue Services (IRS).
Prior to this provision, payment providers were only required to report information when a payee had over 200 commercial transactions per year that exceeded $20,000. As a result of the new provision, thousands of small businesses will have to fill out 1099-Ks to provide their personal information to the IRS, despite the IRS’ poor history of safeguarding Americans’ personal data.
“Joe Biden wants to give his supersized IRS a license to spy on hardworking Americans. Republicans will fight to stop Democrats from giving more power to an agency that can’t even keep tax records secure,” said Senator Barrasso. “Our legislation stops this power-grab dead in its tracks. It also ensures the government isn’t invading the privacy of law-abiding citizens in Wyoming and across the country.”
“It is concerning to me that the Biden administration and Democrats in Congress are continuing to place heavier burdens on small businesses across Wyoming,” said Senator Lummis. “The IRS has a history of unfairly targeting businesses they find distasteful and leaving private consumer information vulnerable to bad actors. The last thing we should give them is access to more of our financial information. I am proud to reintroduce the SNOOP Act with my colleagues to push back on this government overreach.”
“The Biden Administration has proven relentless in its attempt to invade the privacy of Americans’ lives and finances,” said Senator Hagerty. “It is regrettable that this Administration still 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 and the deep concern of the American people that they serve. After Democrats ignored Republican efforts to repeal these new requirements for two years, the Biden Administration took a politically-timed step to save them from the consequences of their own actions, but merely delaying this intrusive provision is not enough; It is past time we stand up for our small business owners and put an end to this Administration’s egregious and unwarranted overreach for good.”
Additional cosponsors include U.S. Senators Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), John Hoeven (R-N.D.), John Kennedy (R-La.), and James Lankford (R-Okla.).
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