IRS is getting bigger and Florida has 4 huge moves underway to protect residents

The IRS is coming, and they are not here to help. There was an old joke after hurricanes that FEMA is a four-letter word for a reason. But after the liberal-led Congress in Washington, D.C., just added 87,000 new agents to audit hard-working, taxpaying Americans, I think I-R-S is the three-letter word we should now fear the most.  

In the midst of an immigration crisis and violent crime overtaking almost every major American city, the geniuses in Washington all got together at the Capitol Hill Club and decided what we need most is 87,000 more IRS agents! This could not be a more ignorant, lost and frankly insulting "response" to the crises facing the American people.  

We only have 20,000 border agents in the country today and while more and more illegal immigrants cross the border each day, unhindered by the policies of President Joe Biden. Washington has decided to punish those already paying taxes by accusing us all that we just aren’t paying enough. This is exactly the kind of outrageous stupidity that made many in America vote for Donald Trump in 2016. Even people who had never voted for a Republican before wanted Trump to go to Washington and wage war on the big-government, tax-and-spend bureaucrats who would rather release 87,000 new IRS agents into our electronic banking system than fix any of the much more obvious problems in America.  

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People dying of fentanyl? Not their problem. People dying from high crime? Not their problem. People suffering from the heavy price burden of high inflation? They don’t care.  

Instead, the answer to everything, every time from big-government liberals is — go back to the taxpayers and get your hands on more of their money. They want the small business who checked the wrong box on a tax form in 2019. They want the parent who Venmoed the babysitter too much money without telling her to make a withholding that year. They want the ice cream shops, the sports bars and the family-run auto mechanic shops in your community who look "rich" because they report their entire business’s gross revenue on their personal income tax statements. 

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It doesn’t matter to them that this person makes "more than $400,000 a year" because their business has a payroll of eight people. They just want more of their money in taxes — with penalties and interest, of course.  

We have had enough. In Florida, I am advocating for four new policies to protect our state from the big-government IRS bureaucrats who are not here to help. They are here to hunt. The following is what I am calling: Florida Fights Back — Four Pillars of Protection from the IRS:  

● The State of Florida can require state-charted banks to generate a regular report on IRS engagement. This information would be used to identify IRS targets, so the state can help identify any potential patterns of discrimination and highlight how the new auditors are targeting the middle class and small businesses. This information would also be regularly provided to elected representatives in Florida and Washington, D.C., to help check the unbridled new powers of the IRS.  

● Establish a Civil Liability Trust Fund to help small businesses defend themselves, or even sue the IRS in cases of politically motivated audits or federal overreach. This trust fund could help small businesses acquire representation for tax court. In criminal cases, defendants are provided a public defender, but that is not the case with civil law. This trust fund would provide a special tax counsel so that the small business owners do not feel like they have to immediately settle. It is our hope this measure would create a chilling effect for IRS agents to bring cases.  

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● Create a license at the state level so new IRS agents are required to register in order to access account information. This licensure process would further scrutinize IRS operatives and examine their backgrounds and motives to protect Florida consumer information. To further bolster transparency, the list of licensed new IRS operatives in Florida would be made publicly available, so consumers are provided evidence in cases where IRS agents act outside of the law.  

● Establish criminal penalties for enforcing laws-based political discrimination. There is documented evidence that the IRS targeted Tea Party groups in 2013, and no doubt the IRS under the Biden administration would do the same to many businesses and organizations in Florida who have professed a love of freedom. Florida must force IRS bureaucrats to think twice before once again targeting conservatives.  

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We know that Florida took in $24 billion in income from New York, New Jersey and California just in one year alone. These new 87,000 IRS agents are going to pack up and head straight to the Sunshine State — unless we stop them. 

Let’s make that the goal. These Four Pillars of Protection from the IRS in our "Florida Fights Back" plan are meant to send a message back to Washington: There is no "open season" on our taxpayers. Take your tax-hunt somewhere else. It will not fly in the free state of Florida.  

Jimmy Patronis serves the citizens of the state of Florida as the state's chief financial officer, state fire marshal, and member of the Florida Cabinet.