No, I’m not talking about that great movie. I’m talking about the IRS 🙄. I’m sure we all pay our taxes every year, though it’s not the most enjoyable task we do each April. But a variety of taxes have existed in the US since the beginning of the Constitution in 1789. “The Congress shall have the power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excesses to pay the debt and provide for the common defense. . .” It wasn’t until 1862, in the middle of the Civil War, that President Lincoln signed the second internal tax measure.

What’s particularly important, but little remembers, is that in 1870 Representative James Garfield (later President Garfield) worked to make tax information private. On July 14, 1870, the Internal Revenue Commissioner, Columbus Delano, made it clear that “no collector . . . shall be permitted to be published in any manner such as income returns or any part thereof except such general statistics.” And that remains–even when the 16th Amendment to the Constitution, giving Congress the ability to level both corporate and personal incomes.

So why am I so aggravated? Because if you read the fine print in the Build Back Better plan (and I’m one of those nerds who does read things like that) part of the 3.4 trillion dollars 😵‍💫 is 80 billion dollars to go to the IRS to add thousands of auditors and other workers. Why? Because they want to look through every person’s bank account if he or she has more than a $600.00 balance, or more than $600.00 in transactions every year. 😡 That will include almost all of the middle class and many people who are truly struggling. Do we really want the IRS knowing when we pay our rent or our electric or heat bills? Is it OK is we’ve saved for years to take our family on a vacation? Silly me–I though that if I carefully figured our my taxes, and paid them on time every year, the IRS would leave me alone. Apparently not. The theory is that there are so many tax cheats that we need more people drilling down to really see what we’ve been doing. Frankly this is sounding like Bid Brother wanting to watch us.

How about a hard NO.(Remember Commissioner Delano) It’s my business, and your business, if we want to spend our money on food or couture clothes, books or the ballet, a bus pass or a Maserati, a road trip to see family or a Mediterranean cruise . . . and what if we decide to give money to a candidate that the IRS doesn’t like? That’s why I said this is a bridge too far. Look into it and see what you think.

If you want some more information, take a look at “The IRS and Your Bank Account” pg A16 on October 5th’s Wall Street Journal