II 

112TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 1796 

To make permanent the Internal Revenue Service Free File program. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

NOVEMBER 3, 2011 

Mr. PRYOR (for himself and Mr. ISAKSON) introduced the following bill; which 

was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance 

A BILL 

To make permanent the Internal Revenue Service Free File 

program. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Free File Program 

5 Act of 2011’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 The Congress finds the following: 

8 (1) The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Free 

9 File program as established by the IRS pursuant to 

10 public rulemaking and set forth in the Federal Reg11 ister, Vol. 67, No. 213, Monday, November 4, 2002, 


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1 pages 67247–67251, and in implementing agree2 ments and governing rules and requirements be3 tween the IRS and the tax software and electronic 

4 industry between 2002 and 2011, has been success5 ful and significant in the efforts of the Federal Gov6 ernment to increase the electronic filing of individual 

7 income tax returns of low and moderate income tax8 payers. 

9 (2) By the end of the current tax return filing 

10 season more than 30,000,000 Federal individual in11 come tax returns will have been prepared and filed 

12 electronically for free over the life of the IRS Free 

13 File program. 

14 (3) The IRS Free File program offers Federal 

15 individual income tax return preparation and elec16 tronic filing services to more than 70 percent of tax17 payers, approximately 100,000,000 taxpayers at the 

18 end of the current tax filing period, with tax soft19 ware and electronic filing provided at no cost to the 

20 taxpayers who use the service or to the Federal Gov21 ernment from tax software and electronic filing com22 panies participating in the program. 

23 (4) By the end of the current tax return filing 

24 season, it is estimated that the IRS Free File pro25 gram will have saved taxpayers approximately 


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1 $1,000,000,000 and will have saved the Federal 

2 Government hundreds of millions of dollars. 

3 SEC. 3. INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE FREE FILE PRO4 GRAM. 

5 (a) The Secretary of the Treasury, or the Secretary’s 

6 delegate, is authorized and directed to continue to operate 

7 the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Free File program as 

8 established by the IRS in the public rulemaking of Novem9 ber 4, 2002, and subsequent agreements and governing 

10 rules. 

11 (b) The IRS Free File program shall continue to pro12 vide free online individual income tax preparation and 

13 electronic filing services to the 70 percent of taxpayers 

14 with the lowest income, determined using prior year tax15 payer adjusted gross income. The number of taxpayers re16 ceiving such services each year shall be adjusted for each 

17 filing season based on taxpayer population and income 

18 changes, but the percentage specified in the preceding sen19 tence shall not change. 

20 (c) The Internal Revenue Service shall continue to 

21 work cooperatively with the private sector through the 

22 Free File Alliance to provide free individual income tax 

23 preparation and electronic filing services and shall not 

24 compete with the private sector in providing these services 

25 to taxpayers, nor shall such Service acquire, develop, or 


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1 deploy enabling systems to duplicate or replace private tax 

2 preparation services. 

3 (d) The Secretary of the Treasury, or the Secretary’s 

4 delegate, shall not establish, develop, sponsor, acquire, or 

5 make available individual income tax preparation software 

6 or electronic filing services except through the IRS Free 

7 File program and the Internal Revenue Service’s Taxpayer 

8 Assistance Centers, Tax Counseling for the Elderly, and 

9 volunteer income tax assistance (VITA) programs. 

Æ 


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