Alleged IRS snooping concerns Lankford

WASHINGTON, DC – Senator James Lankford (R-OK) today joined Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) and a group of Republican Senators in reintroducing the Stop the Nosy Obsession with Online Payments, or SNOOP, Act, a bill to strike the tax code provision inserted by the Biden Administration in the American Rescue Plan (ARP) that requires thirdparty payment platforms, such as Venmo and PayPal, to report businesses’ gross transaction volumes totaling more than $600 to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Joining Lankford and Hagerty in introducing the legislation are Senators Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), John Hoeven (R-ND), John Kennedy (R-LA), John Barrasso (R-WY), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), and Ted Cruz (R-TX).

“I stand firmly against the IRS snooping on Americans, intruding in Oklahomans’ personal finances through online payments like Venmo or PayPal, and forcing financial institutions to report on Americans’ spending,” said Lankford. “Venmo could include paying friends back or sending money to a college student. The IRS has no business tracking those private transactions. IRS audits are already an option to look into any individual or company the IRS feels is not correctly paying the taxes they owe. It’s sad that we need this bill in place to make sure we protect Americans’ private financial transac- tions through online payments from the IRS, but it is sadly necessary. This overstep should not be the solution to cover out-of-control federal spending.”

“The Biden Administration has proven relentless in its attempt to invade the privacy of Americans’ lives and finances,” said 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 the IRS’s failed track record of protecting Americans’ confidential data and the deep concern of the American people that they serve. Though Republican efforts to repeal these new requirements were ignored for two years, the Biden Administration took a politically-timed shortterm step to save themselves 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 egregious and unwarranted overreach for good.”

“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 Lummis. “The IRS has a history of unfairly targeting businesses they find distasteful and leaving private consumer information vulnerable to bad actors. “

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