The House on Monday passed legislation aimed at helping taxpayers fighting IRS bills in the US Tax Court, sending the bipartisan overhaul of those judicial proceedings to the Senate.
The voice vote in the House approves H.R. 5349, which allows judges to extend strict deadlines for taxpayers filing a late petition and allows subpoena powers earlier in the process.
The bill, proposed by tax writers Reps. Nathaniel Moran (R-Texas) and Terri Sewell (D-Ala.), would also give petitioners access to special trial judges where necessary and holds members of that bench to same recusal standards as in other federal courts.
The bill won the unanimous support of the Ways and Means Committee in September. The changes attempt to streamline a backlogged process that has long frustrated taxpayers.
“Changes needed to be made so that the Tax Court process works better for the people it serves,” Moran said in a floor speech Monday.
“These improvements to the Tax Court will have a tangible impact on thousands of taxpayers,” Sewell said.
Prospects are less clear for the legislation in the Senate, which is already sitting on other House changes to tax administration. Senate Finance Committee Chair Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and ranking member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) proposed similar changes in a discussion draft in January.
Members of that tax-writing committee in the Senate bemoaned the backlog in IRS disputes when they were vetting President Donald Trump’s former nominee to be the tax collection agency’s top lawyer, Donald Korb.
(Adds lawmaker quote in paragraph six.)
To contact the reporter on this story:
To contact the editor responsible for this story: