Congresswoman Carol Miller Statement on the Family and Small Business Taxpayer Protection Act
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, Congresswoman Carol Miller (R-WV) spoke on the House of Representatives floor and issued the following statement on the Family and Small Business Taxpayer Protection Act.
“I voted in support of the Family and Small Business Taxpayer Protection Act because it is an important first step to restoring power and privacy back to the American people. For the past two years under Democratic rule, Americans have been burdened with terrible policies and unnecessary taxes. With the passage of the so-called, “Inflation Reduction Act”, liberals in Congress chose to supercharge the IRS by giving $80 billion of new funding and hiring 87,000 new agents who will target families and small businesses instead of reliving costs for Americans. Adding the additional agents shows how little Democrats trust the American people and how much they crave control and power. While there is still work to be done, I look forward to implementing government transparency and give Americans back their financial privacy and freedom.”
Click Here to Watch House Floor Speech.
Remarks as prepared are below:
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the Family and Small Business Taxpayer Protection Act.
The last two years under Democrat rule have resulted in terrible policies and more unnecessary taxes for the American people.
Americans have been feeling the weight of Democrat’s destructive policies since their first day in power, and now it’s time for our Republican Majority to fix this mess.
The pressure on American Taxpayers has continued to increase since the passage of the so-called “Inflation Reduction Act” - when they gave $80 billion of new funding for the IRS to hire 87,000 new agents to needlessly audit families and small businesses who are forced fund the out-of-control spending and misguided Green New Deal priorities.
How do more audits and scrutiny from the IRS benefit hard-working Americans? Liberals in Congress chose to target Americans taxpayers by supercharging the IRS, which solely focuses on auditing the hardworking Americans who already pay more than their fair share. This is unacceptable and must be reversed.
Through the Inflation Reduction Act, Democrats used the tools of the IRS as a means to increase reckless spending and take money away from hard-working American’s pockets. Republicans want to give Americans back their financial privacy and freedom.
By voting on the first bill in the 118th Congress, the Republican majority has immediately focused on government transparency and respecting the value of taxpayer dollars.
During the last two years of Democrat’s one-party rule, I have fought to protect Americans from burdensome taxes, more inflationary policies, and I will continue to hold the federal government accountable for their wasteful spending.
The Family and Small Business Taxpayer Protection Act is an important first step to restoring power back to the American people. I look forward to its swift passage in the House of Representatives.”
Background:
Congresswoman Miller has been leading House Republicans on protecting taxpayers from an overzealous IRS since Democrats passed their so-called American Rescue Plan Act. In the Inflation Reduction Act, Democrats provided billions of dollars in funding to hire 87,000 new IRS agents. According to CBO, Democrats’ supercharged IRS will cause audit rates to “rise for all taxpayers” and a conservative analysis shows that returning audit rates to 2010 levels would mean 1.2 million more audits with over 700,000 of those falling on taxpayers making $75,000 or less.
Until the 2021 tax year, e-commerce platforms did not need to provide the 1099-K form, designed to be sent to independent contractors who have made significant earnings through an e-commerce platform, unless the independent contractor earned at least $20,000 on over 200 separate transactions.
The American Rescue Plan included a provision to lower this threshold to $600 a year with no minimum on the number of transactions, effectively raising taxes on America's hardworking gig economy workers.
Democrats’ last-minute change in the tax code will have a disastrous effect on many gig economy workers, small e-commerce sellers, and others, creating widespread confusion and risk of overpayments to the IRS. This provision is also essentially impossible to implement for many of the companies it would affect. It would likely require the mass collection of social security numbers for every user of an e-commerce platform for the company to comply, leaving millions of Americans in danger of common hacking and data breaches. The Democrat’s 87,000 agents would largely be focused on targeting hardworking Americans, such as those using the Gig Economy to help make ends meet.
Congresswoman Miller has previously introduced the Helping Gig Economy Workers Act to ensure digital platform companies can continue to provide benefits to independent contractors without fear of lawsuits over employee classification for the duration of the COVID-19 public health emergency. She also previously spoke on the floor of the House of Representatives in support of gig economy workers and against the American Rescue Plan.