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| | HR0524 | | LRB102 20992 ECR 29899 r |
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| 1 | | HOUSE RESOLUTION
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| 2 | | WHEREAS, Proposed U.S. Internal Revenue Service-related |
| 3 | | federal legislation is rapidly moving through Congress that |
| 4 | | could endanger the privacy of middle-class Americans; and
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| 5 | | WHEREAS, With the proclaimed goal of "taxing the rich," |
| 6 | | the proponents of this legislation are calling for new federal |
| 7 | | law that would order all banks and financial institutions in |
| 8 | | the United States to open their books to tax inspectors with |
| 9 | | respect to any account where either the total value of the |
| 10 | | account or the aggregate size of the account's transactions |
| 11 | | exceed $600; and
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| 12 | | WHEREAS, The vast majority of financial accounts are of |
| 13 | | sizes, or activities, that fall over this limit; this $600 |
| 14 | | "bright line" would make life a lot darker for tens of millions |
| 15 | | of Americans who live in households that are not close to being |
| 16 | | considered well-off; and
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| 17 | | WHEREAS, Nothing in this proposal would forbid the use of |
| 18 | | artificial-intelligence (AI) snoop software to trawl through |
| 19 | | millions of transactions looking for statistical anomalies |
| 20 | | that could be used to spark IRS enforcement actions; and
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| 21 | | WHEREAS, This federal proposal, which is described as |
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| 1 | | moving through Congress, would encompass not only accounts and |
| 2 | | transactions in banks but also accounts and transactions |
| 3 | | carried out by nonbank financial institutions; money transfers |
| 4 | | carried out through platforms such as PayPal, Venmo, and Cash |
| 5 | | App could be subjected to AI snooping; and
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| 6 | | WHEREAS, With particular respect to the allegation that a |
| 7 | | policy change of this type would help "tax the rich," a major |
| 8 | | family of cash-transfer applications (apps) are specifically |
| 9 | | and deliberately oriented towards servicing the needs of |
| 10 | | working-class persons and households of modest means; |
| 11 | | electronically targeting these apps with AI software is not |
| 12 | | only irrelevant to the proclaimed goal of the proponents of |
| 13 | | this fast-moving congressional proposal but would be directly |
| 14 | | hostile to a very different group of Americans in very |
| 15 | | different circumstances; therefore, be it
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| 16 | | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE |
| 17 | | HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that |
| 18 | | we urge opposition to any change in federal law that would |
| 19 | | increase the accessibility of the financial transactions of |
| 20 | | Americans, including middle-class and working-class Americans, |
| 21 | | to electronic surveillance and AI snoop software; and be it |
| 22 | | further
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| 23 | | RESOLVED, That we affirm all Americans should pay their |
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| 1 | | taxes and affirm the adequacy of existing state and federal |
| 2 | | enforcement powers toward this goal; and be it further
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| 3 | | RESOLVED, That we stand behind the financial privacy of |
| 4 | | all Americans as an element of the essential liberties of the |
| 5 | | people of this country; and be it further
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| 6 | | RESOLVED, That a copy of this resolution be sent to the |
| 7 | | Illinois Congressional Delegation.
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