Washington, D.C. – Congressman Darin LaHood (IL-16) – Chairman of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Work and Welfare – praised the passage of his bipartisan legislation, the Electronic Filing and Payment Fairness Act.
“This commonsense bill, which has been included in the National Taxpayer Advocate’s ‘Purple Book’ of Legislative Recommendations, would amend the tax code to apply the ‘mailbox rule’ to electronic submissions of payments and documents to the Internal Revenue Service,” said Rep. LaHood. “Under current law, if a taxpayer physically mails a payment or tax return to the IRS that is postmarked on the due date, that payment or tax return is considered timely even if it is received a week later. If the taxpayer submits the same payment or return to the IRS electronically on the due date, however, it is considered late if the IRS receives and processes it the following day. This disparity punishes taxpayers electing to correspond with the IRS electronically, which should be the preferred method of communication this day and age…This is a great step in our effort to modernize the IRS and make it more user-friendly, especially for the roughly 90 percent of taxpayers already filing electronically.”
“It’s common sense that taxpayers who file electronically should be treated the same as taxpayers who use postmarked mail,” said House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith. “Unfortunately, under current law, that is not always the case. Representative LaHood’s legislation, the Electronic Filing and Payment Fairness Act, is a big step forward to making our tax system fair for everyone. This bill will harmonize IRS deadline rules to provide equal treatment to all taxpayers, whether filing through mail or electronically, and help Americans avoid unnecessary penalties and fines.”
Background:
The Electronic Filing and Payment Fairness Act focuses on simplifying tax filing and payment processes for American families and small businesses. The legislation applies the “mailbox rule” for documents and payments electronically submitted to the IRS, eliminating unnecessary late fees and administrative burdens for the nearly 90% of Americans who file their taxes electronically.
###
