April 27, 2025
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NTU urges all members to vote “YES” on the below bills being considered on the House floor this evening. Four of these bills help improve the work of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in taxpayer-friendly ways. The fifth bill will improve the balance of the Social Security Trust Funds in the 10-year budget window.
HR 6956 – the BARCODE Efficiency Act
Sponsored by Representatives Brad Schneider (D-IL) and Rudy Yakym (R-IN), this legislation would require the IRS to use optical character recognition (OCR) technology to transcribe all handwritten returns or correspondence received by the Service. This is something that the IRS should be doing already, and typically would not require the passage of a law to make happen. However, the IRS has lagged in modernizing operations for years, leading to delays in return processing, as well as late responses to taxpayer correspondence. For example, in 2024, over 66% of taxpayer correspondence received a response over 45 days after IRS receipt. And, at the conclusion of the 2025 tax year, 3.8 million tax returns remained unprocessed. While the IRS has worked to implement more digitization in its operations, its full implementation is long overdue.
H.R. 7959 – IRS Whistleblower Program Improvement Act
Sponsored by Representatives Mike Kelly (R-PA) and Mike Thompson (D-CA), this bill would make several reasoned reforms to the successful Internal Revenue Service Whistleblower Awards Program. The bill would allow for new evidence to be added to the record in appeals heard by the U.S. Tax Court, increase privacy protections for whistleblowers before the court, provide interest to whistleblower awardees if they are not paid within a year of IRS collection, improve tax treatment of program attorney fees, and make needed changes to program annual reporting to Congress. This bill will help save taxpayer dollars by making it easier for whistleblowers to come forward.
H.R. 7971 – Taxpayer Experience Improvement Act
This bipartisan legislation, led by Representatives David Schweikert (R-AZ) and Donald Beyer (D-VA), would implement a variety of technological enhancements at the IRS that would increase transparency and accessibility for taxpayers. These improvements would require the IRS to add a real-time service dashboard to its website that would display call volumes, the number of callers waiting for a representative, longest wait times, and the availability of callback services; provide personalized, electronic updates to taxpayers regarding the status of their returns, refund details, and specific reasons for any processing delays; offer a callback option for any taxpayer facing a wait time exceeding five minutes; and create an online account system that will allow taxpayers to view IRS documents, electronically respond to correspondence, and securely authorize third-party representatives. This bill would help restore taxpayer confidence in the IRS, while encouraging the Service to appropriately improve operations to ensure taxpayer needs are met.
H.R. 6495 – the Taxpayer Notification and Privacy Act
Sponsored by Representatives Greg Steube (R-FL) and Jimmy Panetta (D-CA), this legislation would create additional protections for taxpayers by imposing new transparency requirements on the IRS. Currently, the IRS is required to notify taxpayers before contacting third parties such as banks or employers when investigating whether or not a person owes taxes. Yet, taxpayers are not informed about what specific information is being sought. This lack of transparency can inadvertently harm the reputations of individuals and businesses. This reform would compel the IRS to disclose what information it plans to request and which third parties it intends to contact. Taxpayers would then have 45 days to provide that information directly to the IRS, reducing the need for third-party inquiries that carry reputational costs.
H.R. 227 – Clergy Act
The Clergy Act would give pastors and clergy members greater retirement security by establishing a one-time re-enrollment window for pastors and other clergy members who previously opted out of Social Security, many in their youth, to voluntarily opt back in. Some pastors opted out decades ago, often due to inaccurate advice, only to later face significant financial hardship. Under current law, this opt-out is permanent. For clergy who have spent their lives serving their communities and congregations, this legislation restores the freedom to secure basic financial protection in retirement. This bill also helps taxpayers, as the 10-year score actually helps improve the balance of the Social Security trust funds, as more will be paying into the system.
Roll call votes will be included in NTU’s annual Rating of Congress and “YES” votes will be considered the pro-taxpayer position.
If you have any questions, please contact NTU Senior Policy Manager David Timmons at dtimmons@ntu.org.