Legislation on the way to sailing through Congress would require electronic payment card processors to report all credit and debit card transactions of businesses identifying their TIN (Taxpaper ID) or Social Security number for single proprietor small business enterprises. This information will go to the IRS for all merchants, regardless of any suspicion of illegal tax cheating activity.
Business First reports
Congress is on the verge of requiring payment card processors to tell the Internal Revenue Service how much money merchants receive through credit card and debit card transactions.
The Bush administration thinks this kind of third-party reporting of revenue would encourage more businesses to report their income accurately. This could help close the gap between what the government is owed in taxes and what it actually collects.
Congress views the requirement as an easy way of raising revenue to pay for other tax cuts or additional government spending. It estimates the proposal could raise nearly $10 billion over 10 years.
Both the House and the Senate included the reporting requirement as a revenue-raiser in separate bills that appear headed for passage: House legislation to shield 21 million taxpayers from the alternative minimum tax (H.R. 6275) and Senate legislation to help homeowners and the housing industry (H.R. 3221).
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