The Honorable William M. Thomas
Chairman, House Committee on Ways and Means
1102 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Chairman Thomas:
On behalf of the more than 350,000 members of the National Taxpayers Union (NTU), I write to offer our support for placing H.R. 6111, sponsored by Representative Ellen Tauscher (D-CA), on the suspension calendar when Congress resumes the legislative session after the election. This bill makes a very minor change to the Tax Code by granting the U.S. Tax Court jurisdiction to hear appeals of innocent spouse equitable relief denials by the IRS.
This change is necessary because there is currently no mechanism for reviewing or appealing IRS decisions regarding the pursuit of individuals being held to account for the actions of their spouse. As a matter of fundamental fairness, we ought to allow taxpayers to appeal IRS decisions to a Tax Court for relief.
An identical version of this bill has already cleared the Senate by unanimous consent. S. 3523, sponsored by Senators Feinstein (D-CA), Kyl (R-AZ), Cornyn (R-TX), Snowe (R-ME), and Bingaman (D-NM), was enacted on September 30, 2006 without amendment. We look forward to working with you on this issue in the future and urge you to support and pass H.R. 6111 when Congress re-convenes.
Sincerely,
Andrew Moylan
Government Affairs Manager
cc: Speaker Dennis Hastert
Majority Leader John Boehner