I 

114TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 4938 

To make permanent the Internal Revenue Service Free File program. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

APRIL 14, 2016 

Mr. ROSKAM (for himself, Mr. KIND, Mr. CONAWAY, Mr. BUTTERFIELD, Mr. 

TOM PRICE of Georgia, Mr. SESSIONS, Mr. MCHENRY, Mr. BOUSTANY, 

Mr. TIBERI, Mr. REICHERT, Mr. BUCHANAN, Mr. RANGEL, Mr. NEAL, 

Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania, Mrs. BLACK, Mr. CROWLEY, Mr. PAULSEN, 

Ms. LINDA T. SA ́NCHEZ of California, Mr. LARSON of Connecticut, Mr. 

PASCRELL, Ms. JENKINS of Kansas, Mr. RENACCI, Mr. MARCHANT, Mr. 

CRENSHAW, Ms. FOXX, Mr. SCHIFF, Mr. KINZINGER of Illinois, Mr. 

SMITH of Washington, Mr. COHEN, Ms. JUDY CHU of California, Mr. 

LANGEVIN, Mr. HUDSON, Mr. WHITFIELD, Mr. DUNCAN of South Carolina, Mr. GUTHRIE, Mr. HUIZENGA of Michigan, Mr. MULVANEY, Mr. 

WOMACK, Mr. HOLDING, Mr. COLE, Ms. ESHOO, Mr. PITTENGER, Mr. 

CONNOLLY, Mr. BEYER, Mr. KILMER, Mr. ROE of Tennessee, Mr. 

HIMES, Ms. ROYBAL-ALLARD, Mr. THOMPSON of California, Mr. 

HULTGREN, Mr. ROSS, Mr. WILSON of South Carolina, Mr. FINCHER, 

Mr. CRAWFORD, Mr. POLIS, Mr. BURGESS, Mr. AMODEI, Mrs. COMSTOCK, Mr. LATTA, Mr. CALVERT, Mr. RUSH, Mr. COLLINS of New York, 

Mrs. BLACKBURN, and Mr. DIAZ-BALART) introduced the following bill; 

which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means 

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, 


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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Free File Act of 

3 2016’’. 

4 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

5 The Congress finds the following: 

6 (1) The Internal Revenue Service Free File 

7 program (hereinafter referred to as the ‘‘IRS Free 

8 File Program’’) as established by the IRS pursuant 

9 to public rulemaking and set forth in the Federal 

10 Register, Vol. 67, No. 213, Monday, November 4, 

11 2002, pages 67247–67251, and in implementing 

12 agreements and governing rules and requirements 

13 between the IRS and the tax software and electronic 

14 industry between 2003 and 2015, has been success15 ful and significant in the efforts of the Federal Gov16 ernment to increase the electronic filing of individual 

17 income tax returns of low and moderate income tax18 payers. 

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

20 season more than 45,000,000 Federal individual in21 come tax returns will have been prepared and filed 

22 electronically for free over the life of the IRS Free 

23 File program. 

24 (3) The IRS Free File program offers Federal 

25 individual income tax return preparation and elec26 tronic filing services to more than 70 percent of taxVerDate Sep 11 2014 02:19 Apr 19, 2016 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4938.IH H4938

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1 payers, approximately 100,000,000 taxpayers at the 

2 end of the current tax filing period, with tax soft3 ware and electronic filing provided at no cost to the 

4 taxpayers who use the service or to the Federal Gov5 ernment from tax software and electronic filing com6 panies participating in the program. 

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

8 season, it is estimated that the IRS Free File pro9 gram will have saved taxpayers approximately 

10 $1,300,000,0000 and will have saved the Federal 

11 Government about $125,000,000 in processing costs. 

12 (5) In addition to the IRS Free File Program, 

13 the Internal Revenue Service also provides Taxpayer 

14 Assistance Centers, Tax Counseling for the Elderly, 

15 and Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) pro16 grams. Each of these programs represent important 

17 sources of taxpayer assistance and provide taxpayer 

18 services through different modalities to serve low 

19 and moderate income taxpayers. 

20 SEC. 3. FREE FILE PROGRAM. 

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

22 delegate, shall continue to operate the IRS Free File Pro23 gram as established by the Internal Revenue Service and 

24 published in the Federal Register on November 4, 2002 


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1 (67 Fed. Reg. 67247), including any subsequent agree2 ments and governing rules established pursuant thereto. 

3 (b) The IRS Free File Program shall continue to pro4 vide free commercial-type online individual income tax 

5 preparation and electronic filing services to the lowest 70 

6 percent of taxpayers by income. The number of taxpayers 

7 eligible to receive such services each year shall be cal8 culated by the Internal Revenue Service annually based 

9 on prior year aggregate taxpayer adjusted gross income 

10 data. 

11 (c) In addition to the services described in subsection 

12 (b), and in the same manner, the IRS Free File Program 

13 shall continue to make available to all taxpayers (without 

14 regard to income) a basic, online electronic fillable forms 

15 utility. 

16 (d) The IRS Free File Program shall continue to 

17 work cooperatively with the private sector to provide the 

18 free individual income tax preparation and the electronic 

19 filing services described in subsections (b) and (c). 

20 (e) The IRS Free File Program shall work coopera21 tively with State government agencies to enhance and ex22 pand the use of the program to provide needed benefits 

23 to the taxpayer while reducing the cost of processing re24 turns. 


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1 (f) Nothing in this Act is intended to impact the con2 tinuity of services provided under Taxpayer Assistance 

3 Centers, Tax Counseling for the Elderly, and Volunteer 

4 Income Tax Assistance programs. 

5 SEC. 4. INNOVATIONS. 

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

7 delegate, shall work with the private sector through the 

8 IRS Free File Program to identify and implement, con9 sistent with applicable law, innovative new program fea10 tures to improve and simplify the taxpayer’s experience 

11 with completing and filing individual income tax returns 

12 in voluntary compliance. 

13 (b) The Internal Revenue Service, and members of 

14 the tax software and electronic industry with whom the 

15 Internal Revenue Service works through the Free File 

16 Program, shall support and promote improvements within 

17 the program by mutually testing, piloting, and offering in18 novative solutions to— 

19 (1) simplify taxpayer compliance with the inter20 nal revenue laws, 

21 (2) reduce taxpayer compliance burdens, 

22 (3) increase individual income tax return accu23 racy through financial data authentication, 


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1 (4) strengthen the tax system against existing 

2 and emerging fraud and threats of fraud through cy3 bersecurity collaboration, 

4 (5) avoid duplication of effort in the tax system, 

5 (6) simplify the tax system, 

6 (7) maximize the use of electronic technology, 

7 and 

8 (8) reduce information reporting burdens. 

Æ 


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