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March 27, 2018 at 01:49 PM
IRS building in Washington.
House lawmakers on Tuesday floated a bipartisan discussion draft of legislation to redesign and update Internal Revenue Service operations and the IRS’ system of tax administration, with an eye on returning the IRS to its “service first” mission and overhauling its wildly outdated technology.
The sponsors of the draft — House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Lynn Jenkins, R-Kansas, and Ranking Member John Lewis, D-Ga. — released the discussion draft titled The Taxpayer First Act, and welcome comments on it until April 6.
The discussion draft “is the culmination of more than eleven Oversight Subcommittee events, including hearings and roundtable discussions over the last three years,” Jenkins and Lewis said in a joint statement. “Dozens of witnesses testified before the subcommittee on different topics and with varying viewpoints on how to improve and modernize the IRS.”
Taxpayer interactions with the IRS haven’t been modified since 1998. “Two decades later, it is time to modernize the agency’s information technology, infrastructure and services,” the two lawmakers said. “It is time to return the IRS back to its ‘service first’ mission.”
With the new tax cut law now passed, “our attention must now turn to modernizing the IRS and improving the taxpayer experience,” Jenkins said.
“As a CPA, I know from experience the IRS can be very frustrating to deal with. I am proud of the work this subcommittee has done to advance this initiative in a bipartisan fashion.”
