Miller's Op Ed: Biden's Lame Duck Siccing of the IRS on Americans Cannot Stand

Washington, D.C. - Congresswoman Carol Miller (R-WV) penned an op-ed in the National Review on how the IRS' illegal 1099-K reporting threshold burdens American taxpayers and why Congress must pass the Saving Gig Economy Taxpayers Act immediately.

National Review: Biden's Lame-Duck Siccing of the IRS on Americans Cannot Stand

"The 2024 presidential election was a decisive victory for President-elect Donald Trump and the conservative agenda. The American people sent back the Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives with a clear message: Help Trump get the government off our backs, and don't raise our taxes. People are sick of the Biden administration's excessive overreach, including the intention to hire 87,000 new Internal Revenue Service agents to nitpick every aspect of their lives.

But lame-duck Biden has not heard this message. Indeed, last week, his IRS showcased its plans to make life harder for American taxpayers by releasing guidance on the 1099-K threshold. Acting unilaterally, the Biden IRS illegally changed the reporting threshold to $5,000 for tax year 2024, reducing it to $2,500 in 2025, and will finally implement the law's requirement of $600 in 2026.

The 1099-K form is meant to report income earned from businesses accepting payments from credit cards or e-commerce apps, as well as companies making money selling merchandise or event tickets online. To prevent Americans from having to worry about getting one of these tax forms by accident, the time-tested law had a twofold hurdle: You had to receive at least $20,000 from any one credit card, app, or website, and you had to have at least 200 transactions from that same card, app, or website. Failing to cross either of those lines meant you didn't need to worry about getting a 1099-K form.

The misnamed American Rescue Plan radically changed the rules for 1099-K. The $20,000 hurdle was reduced to $600; the 200-transaction hurdle was reduced to one transaction! As a result, those who sold used athletic equipment on eBay or used Venmo to collect rent will be considered small businesses. Even worse, the tax form doesn't report what you initially paid for the item in question, so many of the items of 'income' are sold at a loss - and the 1099-K form comes anyway. This new process is needlessly confusing and will result in double taxation for many Americans, who probably paid tax when purchasing an item and then potentially would be taxed again on its sale.

To fix the problems Democrats created, I introduced H.R. 190, the Saving Gig Economy Taxpayers Act. This will protect Americans who use online payment platforms, gig economy workers, and small e-commerce sellers from being taken advantage of by the IRS. It will ensure they have continued access to reliable income streams. My legislation will restore the standard of $20,000 in payments and 200 transactions so everyday Americans don't get hit with unnecessary tax burdens. It is my hope that H.R. 190, which is co-sponsored by every Republican member of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, can be signed into law by the end of this Congress as a down payment on tax reform next year.

To add insult to injury, the IRS delayed the implementation of the new 1099-K rules at the end of 2022 and again at the end of 2023. To put it simply: This was illegal. It's the job of the Congress to tell the IRS when a new tax law will go into effect, not the other way around. For better or for worse, the Democrat-led Congress chose 2022 as the year for the new 1099-K threshold. My bill will fix the 1099-K issue, and it will also reassert the proper role of the Congress over unelected bureaucrats.

The IRS knows that lowering the 1099-K threshold was a grave error. During a Ways and Means hearing, IRS commissioner Danny Werfel admitted that a 'change [back to the $20,000 and 200 transactions] in the threshold would be easier to administer and so at my seat at the table, I'd say the IRS would have an easier time of administering it.' While I agree that the threshold should be changed back, the IRS does not have the authority to ignore Congress. Unfortunately, lowering the threshold to $600 is the rule of law. One might think that the IRS is waiting for Republicans to be in power to raise the threshold back to the original standard of $20,000 and 200 separate transactions.

Now there is a new issue of 'backup withholding.' Due to a glitch in the law the Democrats passed, thousands of app users are having their own money taken from them and given to the IRS. They are then told to go fight to get it back at tax time. The only practical way to end this disaster is to restore the old 1099-K thresholds. This issue became more onerous with the IRS's notice of deadline on Thanksgiving week. It requires every customer of every 1099-K issuing entity to turn over their Social Security numbers to the apps. This is a clear IRS snooping power grab on millions of Americans and yet more illegal lawmaking from the IRS that Congress needs to fix.

The Saving Gig Economy Taxpayers Act will stop this tsunami of tax forms from hitting ordinary Americans this January. This 1099-K bad governance hangover from the Democrats should not impede pro-family, pro-Main Street business tax reform next year. We cannot have any distractions that stand in the way of Republicans' desire to deliver tax reform to the American people."

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