On Thursday, Florida Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Jimmy Patronis released legislative text as part of his Four Part “IRS Protection Plan to Fight Back Against a Shakedown Targeting Florida.”
Recently, Patronis announced he would work to pass legislation for the upcoming session to fight back against the IRS, which is expected to grow by 87,000 personnel through $80 billion from the “Inflation Reduction Act” that President Joe Biden signed into law in August. Additionally, Patronis said his office will create an IRS transparency site where members of the public can report potential discrimination and targeting activities by IRS agents. The bill text is below.
“Today, we released bill language that we will work with members of the Florida Legislature to pass, so that we can protect Florida’s small businesses. We know that the IRS targeted conservative groups in 2013, and we cannot let that happen in Florida. When it comes to public corruption, I have always felt that transparency is the best disinfectant. That’s why our first proposal creates a system where Florida’s state chartered banks will report IRS activities to understand the severity and frequency of federal agents accessing Florida’s banking information. This information will help us better understand where the IRS may be targeting Floridians, so we can fight back against potential discrimination. Moreover, we will make this information available to the appropriate committees in Washington that provide oversight of the IRS,” Pstronis said.
The CFO also discussed the development of a transparency site as part of his #1 Pillar: “Luckily, we do not need a law to create a resource for the public to file complaints about specific IRS agents and activities. This information will be important as we work to protect Florida businesses, non-profits and individuals from abuses by IRS officials. We want to give them a place where they can submit facts and information on how they believe the IRS may be targeting them to see if there is any way state or federal authorities can help,” said CFO Jimmy Patronis.
PILLAR #1: TRANSPARENCY AS A DISINFECTANT
As the IRS accesses certain banks for audits and investigations, Florida law would mandate that the state chartered banks must report IRS activity. The information would be used by Floridians to assess how citizens of this state are being targeted by the IRS, and the reports would be made available to respective Congressional committees that provide oversight of the IRS. This information would be used to identify IRS targets and assess their frequency and intensity. As the Tea Party was targeted by the IRS in 2013, creating a Transparency Site for individuals, private businesses or non-profits to report evidence of discrimination by IRS operatives would help Florida identify patterns of discrimination where specific agents are targeting certain political causes.
BILL TEXT (DRAFT LANGUAGE FOR PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION) –
(1) Each state financial institution, subsidiary, or service corporation shall submit a quarterly report to the Office of Financial Regulation listing the number of inquiries, requests, summons, subpoenas or other requests for information or records received from the Internal Revenue Service concerning its Florida-domiciled account holder(s).
(2) Thereafter, the Office of Financial Regulation shall submit an annual report combining the information from the quarterly reports to the Financial Services Commission, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the President of the Senate by January 30.
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