Within the American Rescue Plan was a piece of legislation requiring Americans to report any transactions they made over $600. The most recent budget negotiation eliminated much of the additional funding for the IRS. The Biden Administration wanted to hire 87,000 new IRS agents and claimed they were solely targeting the rich. Not so coincidentally, directly after the recent IRS budget cut, the government announced that 2023 will be a “transition year,” and Americans will not need to report these small payments as of yet.
The plan will go into effect next year, but the minimum threshold will be raised from $600 to $5,000. All Americans will be required to file a 1099-K form to report additional earnings exceeding $5,000. Yet, businesses are already required to report on all their transactions. “We spent many months gathering feedback from third-party groups and others, and it became increasingly clear we need additional time to effectively implement the new reporting requirements,” IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said.
Targeting a $600 payment or even a $5,000 payment is not going to target the billionaire class. Do you think people like Elon Musk are selling a bike on eBay for $600 and refraining from paying taxes? They are directly looking to target middle America with these restrictions. Taxes simply never go down as the government feels entitled to a portion of every penny you earn.
Now this news also comes directly after Biden’s approval rating plummeted into negative territory. They do not want to anger the people ahead of the election. Should we simply pay our taxes to Israel and Ukraine this tax season? People would realize how trivial those $600+ payments were after the government audits the local babysitter for not reporting her income or asks grandma to itemize her yard sale earnings. The government overreach would be blatant enough to wake up the most loyal Biden supporter.
They know that digital currency will soon roll out, providing them with the ability to track all of our transactions easily. This is one of the reasons that governments globally are moving towards a cashless society. It is still curious as to why the IRS has an armed branch that is trained in “firearms, defensive tactics, and building entry.” They are merely buying time before declaring that the people must give more to support government’s unending spending.
