DeSantis signs bill targeting banks and creating IRS liaison for Floridians

TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation Thursday making it harder for banks to drop customers and creating a state liaison to field Floridians’ complaints with the Internal Revenue Service.

House Bill 989 would protect conservative groups, gun sellers and private prisons from being dropped by financial institutions, DeSantis said during a news conference in Jacksonville.

“If you own a firearm store — federal firearm license, following the laws and everything — if they just cut you off because they don’t like that business, you have recourse here in this new piece of legislation,” DeSantis said.

He cited examples of PayPal freezing the assets of conservative Florida-based advocacy group Moms For Liberty in 2022 and Bank of America and J.P. Morgan dropping Boca Raton-based private prison operator GEO Group following pressure from activists. One of Moms for Liberty’s co-founders said PayPal was confused about the group’s IRS status and its account was unfrozen.

But individuals and small businesses of all kinds have increasingly found their accounts closed by banks.

Under federal law, financial institutions are required to file suspicious activity reports if they detect a transaction violated laws, such as fraud, terrorism, human trafficking or money laundering.

The number of those reports filed by banks rose 50%, to more than 1.8 million, in two years, Thomson Reuters reported. The New York Times reported last year that those reports, which are generated by algorithmic alerts, often lead to terminating a customer’s account.

The Times found examples of a bar owner’s account being canceled after their deposits fell just below federal reporting thresholds, and a married couple’s accounts being closed after one of the spouses started receiving direct deposits from a marijuana company that acquired his employer.

Companies can’t legally tell customers if their accounts were closed because of a suspicious activity report. The money can take weeks to be returned to the customer.

Florida law already prohibits banks and other financial institutions from denying or canceling a customer for political or religious reasons. They also can’t discriminate based on the type of industry a business is in, or for environmental, social and governance factors, commonly referred to as “ESG.”

HB 989, which takes effect July 1, goes further, prohibiting banks from suspending or terminating an account for those reasons.

It would also give Floridians some recourse. Under the bill, they could file a complaint with Florida’s Office of Financial Regulation within 30 days if they believe their financial institution dropped them in violation of state law.

The office is required to investigate and give the financial institution 90 days to respond.

During Thursday’s news conference, neither DeSantis nor state Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis, who backed HB 989, mentioned a section of the bill that creates a “federal tax liaison.”

The position, which will report to Patronis, will have no power over the IRS, but will take Floridians’ federal tax questions and direct them to the agency. With taxpayers’ consent, the liaison would also request records from the IRS.

Patronis, who is believed to be considering a run for governor in 2026, has frequently criticized the IRS in recent years. In March, he signed a joint letter urging the IRS to shut down its new portal allowing Floridians and other Americans to directly file their taxes with the government.

The portal allows people to avoid going through companies such as Intuit, the maker of TurboTax, which has spent decades lobbying Congress to prevent the creation of a free filing portal. The letter Patronis signed called the portal “a solution in search of a problem.”