Bills dealing with tax administration, disaster victims pass House

The U.S. House of Representatives passed six bipartisan bills this week dealing with the IRS – four focused on improving tax administration and two aimed at helping victims of disasters.

The AICPA endorsed four of the bills, which were included in an earlier Senate discussion draft.

• H.R. 1152, the Electronic Filing and Payment Fairness Act, which applies the “mailbox rule” to electronically submitted tax returns and payments to allow the IRS to record payments and documents submitted electronically on the date of receipt instead of when they are received or reviewed at a later date.

• H.R. 998, the Internal Revenue Service Math and Taxpayer Help Act, whichrequires notices describing a mathematical or clerical error to be explained in plain language. It also requires the Treasury secretary to provide additional procedures for requesting an abatement of a math or clerical error adjustment, including by telephone or in person, among other provisions.

• H.R. 517, the Filing Relief for Natural Disasters Act, which gives the IRS the authority to grant tax relief when a governor declares either a disaster or a state of emergency. This is a change from the current process, which allows the IRS to grant the tax relief only after a federal disaster declaration, which may happen weeks after a state declaration. The bill also expands the mandatory federal filing extension under  Sec. 7508(d) from 60 days to 120 days.

• H.R. 1491, the Disaster-Related Extension of Deadlines Act, which extends the amount of time disaster victims have to file for a tax refund or credit, i.e., the lookback period, by the amount of time afforded pursuant to a disaster relief postponement period for disaster victims. This legislative solution would place taxpayers on equal footing as taxpayers not affected by major disasters and would afford greater clarity and certainty to taxpayers and tax practitioners regarding this lookback period.

The bills represent “common-sense reforms that will benefit taxpayers, tax practitioners, and tax administration,” Melanie Lauridsen, the AICPA’s vice president–Tax Policy & Advocacy, said in a news release.

The House approved two other IRS-focused bills:

H.R. 997, the National Taxpayer Advocate Enhancement Act of 2025, which authorizes the national taxpayer advocate (NTA) to appoint legal counsel within the Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) to report directly to the NTA. The bill also expands the NTA’s authority to take personnel actions with respect to local taxpayer advocates to include actions with respect to any TAS employee. Currently, under an order from Treasury, all legal counsel whose duties include providing legal advice to any official in any office or bureau of Treasury are part of the legal division within Treasury and under the supervision of the general counsel, with limited exceptions.

H.R. 1155, the Recovery of Stolen Checks Act, which requires Treasury to establish procedures that allow an eligible taxpayer to choose direct deposit of a replacement of a federal tax refund when the original paper check was lost or stolen. Currently, taxpayers generally are issued another paper check.

Three bills passed on a voice vote, and three passed unanimously. They were sent to the Senate, which referred them to the Finance Committee.

— To comment on this article or to suggest an idea for another article, contact Martha Waggoner at Martha.Waggoner@aicpa-cima.com.