IRS Will Soon Require Face-Scans to Access Certain Online Tax Features

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will soon require taxpayers to submit a scan of their face in order to access certain features and tax records.

The change, first reported on by Krebs on Security, will force users to sign into the IRS website through an account with third-party firm ID.me, and provide a government identification document with their photo alongside a selfie to verify their identity, according to the IRS website.

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IRS Blasted by Watchdog for ‘Horrendous’ Customer Service

Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS), an independent watchdog within the Internal Revenue Service, released a 2021 report to Congress stating that tens of millions of taxpayers had a “horrendous” experience with customer service, including the worst phone service “ever” and long delays for refunds.

“Calendar year 2021 was surely the most challenging year taxpayers and tax professionals have ever experienced – long processing and refund delays, difficulty reaching the IRS by phone, correspondence that went unprocessed for many months, collection notices issued while taxpayer correspondence was awaiting processing, limited or no information on the Where’s My Refund? tool for delayed returns, and – for full disclosure – difficulty obtaining timely assistance from TAS,” the report stated.

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Zuckerberg-Funded Nonprofit Heavily Favored Democrats in Allotting Millions in Election Aid: IRS Filings

A Chicago-based nonprofit funded by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to local election offices in what critics charge was a bid to elect Democrats in the 2020 elections, newly released IRS filings show.

The Center for Technology and Civic Life’s IRS Form 990 filing for 2020, which Just the News obtained, reveals thousands of grants to election offices across the country. IRS 990s detail where organizations received and spent money.

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Analysis: Americans Overwhelmingly Oppose Plan to Hire IRS Agents to Audit Citizens

Outside of IRS building

Included in the Democrats’ Build Back Better Act currently before the U.S. Senate is a proposal to allocate $80 billion to the Internal Revenue Service to hire nearly 87,000 additional agents – a plan opposed by a majority of voters recently polled.

The BBBA proposal also comes after numerous reports show years of examples of agency problems costing taxpayer money.

According to a new HarrisX poll, 58% of likely voters said they think increased enforcement would impact middle class taxpayers the most; 23% said it would only impact the wealthy.

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21 House Democrats Call for IRS Reporting Proposal to Be Scrapped

A group of House Democrats on Wednesday called for a tax reporting proposal included in the Build Back Better Act to be scrapped, citing concerns over privacy.

“Americans expect their bank or credit union to safeguard their financial information,” the Democrats wrote in a letter addressed to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Ways and Means Chair Richard Neal. “This proposal would erode trust in financial services providers.”

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Commentary: $28 Per Day Triggers IRS Surveillance Program

The entire Democrat multi-trillion dollar socialist spending scam is bad for Americans, and bad for our economy. One particular provision that is especially terrible is their “IRS Surveillance” program, which would grant the government access to spy on nearly every Americans’ bank accounts. Their bill wants to use $80 billion of taxpayer funds to hire 85,000 more bureaucrats, nearly doubling the size of the IRS, to go through individuals’ personal banking information.

President Biden, and his colleagues in Congress, must have realized how unpopular this policy was with the American people, so they decided to make some “changes.” They created the impression they were raising the threshold in transactions individuals would need to hit before triggering the IRS to spy on their personal banking accounts.

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Biden Revises IRS Monitoring Plan, Banks Still Opposed

The Biden administration is making changes to its plan to require banks to report to the IRS on all accounts with at least $600, but banks say those changes are not enough.

Biden has pitched increasing federal tax revenue through more auditing and a stricter IRS as a way to help fund his proposed trillions in federal spending. His initial plan to require reporting of all $600 accounts sparked major controversy.

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Georgia Gov. Kemp, Others Criticize IRS Monitoring Plan as ‘Invasion of Privacy’

Gov. Brian Kemp and Georgia’s business and banking community are pushing back against a federal proposal that would allow the IRS to monitor bank accounts with more than $600.

The plan is part of Democrats’ $3.5 trillion spending bill currently being considered in Congress. Kemp and leaders of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce and the Georgia Bankers Association said it violates most Georgians’ privacy.

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Arizona State Treasurer Kimberly Yee Sends Letter to Sinema, Kelly Opposing Legislation to Allow IRS to Monitor Americans’ $600 or More Withdrawals and Deposits

Arizona State Treasurer Kimberly Yee sent a letter to Arizona’s Democratic Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly urging them not to vote for legislation that would allow the IRS to monitor Americans’ bank accounts for transactions of $600 or more in withdrawals and deposits. The proposal is part of the Biden administration’s $3.5 trillion American Families Plan, the so-called “human infrastructure” bill. Scott Earl, the CEO & President of Mountain West Credit Union Association, also signed the letter, representing multiple credit unions. 

Yee, who is running for governor of Arizona, said, “As it stands now, this proposal would threaten the financial security of more than 100 million Americans from all demographics. If it passes, the government will conduct one of the largest data mining exercises in American history, risking the security of the banking system.”

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Commentary: IRS Guidance Would Punish Small Business Owners with Families

Outside of IRS building

Most IRS guidance documents make for poor pleasure reading. Then again, most IRS guidance doesn’t effectively impose a retroactive tax on small business owners merely for having a family. IRS Notice 2021-49, issued on August 4, includes a bizarre interpretation of the law that will effectively raise taxes for business owners with close relatives, even if their family members have no involvement in the company.

A core goal of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act passed early on in the pandemic was to assist businesses in keeping employees on their payroll even as they dealt with the economic effects of lockdowns. Part of the plan was the Employee Retention Tax Credit (ERTC), which provides a tax credit against employer payroll tax liabilities.

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Designer of AOC’s ‘Tax the Rich’ Gown Owes Back Taxes on $1.6 Million Hollywood Hills Home, Report

The designer of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s “Tax the Rich” gown for the recent Met Gala reportedly has her own tax issues, including owing thousands on a $1.6 million home she recently purchased in Los Angeles’ Hollywood Hills.

Designer Aurora James bought the home in September 2020, but the property is already listed as “delinquent” by the Los Angeles County assessor’s office. The office told The New York Post, which this past weekend reported on James’ tax issues, the designer owed $2,504 in property taxes.

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Audit: Maury County School System Fined Nearly $400,000 in IRS Late Fees

The Internal Revenue Service has assessed nearly $400,000 in penalties and interests against the Maury County School Department, according to an audit Tennessee Comptrollers released this week. The fines and penalties come from 2016 and 2017, according to the audit. County taxpayers, of course, are the ones who must foot the bill. In the third quarter of 2016, school system officials paid $70,477 in late penalties plus interest. Later that year, in the fourth quarter, IRS officials fined the school system officials a total of $51,498. In the fourth quarter of 2017, the amount the IRS fined the school system was considerably less, only $707. “The School Department paid $79,321 on April 20, 2018, $40,478 on July 5, 2018, and the remaining $2,883 was paid using tax credits applied from other tax periods for a total of $122,682 ($79,321 plus $40,478 plus $2,883),” auditors wrote. “The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) assessed additional Federal Tax Deposit Penalties of $99,789 for the 3rd Quarter 2016 and $148,543 for the 1st Quarter 2017 employment tax returns. These penalties were later abated. These penalties resulted from a lack of management oversight.” Therefore, auditors went on to say, the IRS assessed interest and penalties a…

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Before Lois Lerner Targeted the Tea Party, She Helped the Clinton Foundation

Six years before she became the central figure in the IRS’s illegal targeting of Tea Party tax-exemption applicants, Lois Lerner cleared the way for the Clinton Foundation’s transformation from building a presidential library to being a $2 billion global political influence peddling machine, according to documents obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation’s Investigative Group. She…

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