Independent Bankers Concerned About Infrastructure Proposal

As Congressional democrats continue to work on passing the $3.5 trillion infrastructure package on to President Biden’s desk, some in farm country are concerned about some of the details in the proposal. Paul Merski, Executive Vice President of Congressional Relations and Strategy for the Independent Community Bankers of America, is seriously concerned about a proposal that potentially involves the IRS and bank accounts of farmers, ranchers and other across rural America.

“They're looking for ways to offset that cost, and one idea, which is a horrible idea, is to have the IRS look into everyone's bank account transactions, and it would force banks to report on any transaction going into or out of an account of $600 or more. So, basically, every account in America would be monitored by the IRS as the banks are forced to send in your transaction account information into the IRS.”

Merski says under this proposal, IRS assumes everyone is a tax cheat and they will start auditing more and more people. He added independent bankers handle a lot of business in rural America, and this will have a huge impact on farmers, ranchers, and rural businesses.

“We're concerned that customers realize and know that banks are going to be soon forced to report all your financial transactions, even on loans, to the IRS. We feel that customers don't know what's going on here in Washington with this proposal, we want to make sure that customers know it's not the bank sending all this information to the IRS, it's the IRS and Treasury and the administration demanding that the banks report all these transactions.”

Merski added he wants to make sure that the typical American small business owner, understands what's going on in Washington D.C. and to weigh in…by contacting your representative and your senator.

If you have a story idea for the PNW Ag Network, call (509) 547-1618, or e-mail gvaagen@cherrycreekmedia.com