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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, Proposed U.S. Internal Revenue Service-related
3federal legislation is rapidly moving through Congress that
4could endanger the privacy of middle-class Americans; and
 
5    WHEREAS, With the proclaimed goal of "taxing the rich,"
6the proponents of this legislation are calling for new federal
7law that would order all banks and financial institutions in
8the United States to open their books to tax inspectors with
9respect to any account where either the total value of the
10account or the aggregate size of the account's transactions
11exceed $600; and
 
12    WHEREAS, The vast majority of financial accounts are of
13sizes, or activities, that fall over this limit; this $600
14"bright line" would make life a lot darker for tens of millions
15of Americans who live in households that are not close to being
16considered well-off; and
 
17    WHEREAS, Nothing in this proposal would forbid the use of
18artificial-intelligence (AI) snoop software to trawl through
19millions of transactions looking for statistical anomalies
20that could be used to spark IRS enforcement actions; and
 
21    WHEREAS, This federal proposal, which is described as

 

 

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1moving through Congress, would encompass not only accounts and
2transactions in banks but also accounts and transactions
3carried out by nonbank financial institutions; money transfers
4carried out through platforms such as PayPal, Venmo, and Cash
5App could be subjected to AI snooping; and
 
6    WHEREAS, With particular respect to the allegation that a
7policy change of this type would help "tax the rich," a major
8family of cash-transfer applications (apps) are specifically
9and deliberately oriented towards servicing the needs of
10working-class persons and households of modest means;
11electronically targeting these apps with AI software is not
12only irrelevant to the proclaimed goal of the proponents of
13this fast-moving congressional proposal but would be directly
14hostile to a very different group of Americans in very
15different circumstances; therefore, be it
 
16    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE
17HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
18we urge opposition to any change in federal law that would
19increase the accessibility of the financial transactions of
20Americans, including middle-class and working-class Americans,
21to electronic surveillance and AI snoop software; and be it
22further
 
23    RESOLVED, That we affirm all Americans should pay their

 

 

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1taxes and affirm the adequacy of existing state and federal
2enforcement powers toward this goal; and be it further
 
3    RESOLVED, That we stand behind the financial privacy of
4all Americans as an element of the essential liberties of the
5people of this country; and be it further
 
6    RESOLVED, That a copy of this resolution be sent to the
7Illinois Congressional Delegation.