I 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 159 

To require the Administrator of the Small Business Administration to establish a grant program to address rising costs of tax compliance for 

small business concerns, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JANUARY 3, 2019 

Mr. EVANS introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee 

on Ways and Means, and in addition to the Committee on Small Business, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each 

case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of 

the committee concerned 

A BILL 

To require the Administrator of the Small Business Administration to establish a grant program to address rising 

costs of tax compliance for small business concerns, and 

for other purposes. 

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. GRANTS TO SMALL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT 

2 CENTERS AND WOMEN’S BUSINESS CENTERS 

3 TO ADDRESS RISING COSTS OF TAX COMPLI4 ANCE FOR SMALL BUSINESS CONCERNS. 

5 (a) GRANT AUTHORITY.—The Administrator of the 

6 Small Business Administration may award a grant under 

7 this section to a small business development center or a 

8 women’s business center for the purposes of assisting own9 ers of small business concerns in complying with the Inter10 nal Revenue Code of 1986 and communicating with the 

11 Internal Revenue Service. 

12 (b) APPLICATION.—Each applicant for a grant under 

13 this section shall submit to the Administrator an applica14 tion in such form as the Administrator may require. The 

15 application shall include information regarding the appli16 cant’s goals and objectives for helping address the con17 cerns of owners of small business concerns related to com18 pliance with the Internal Revenue Code of 1986. 

19 (c) APPLICABILITY OF GRANT REQUIREMENTS.—An 

20 applicant for a grant under this section shall comply with 

21 all of the requirements applicable to a grantee under sec22 tion 21 or section 29 of the Small Business Act, except 

23 that the matching funds requirements of such sections 

24 shall not apply. 


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1 (d) USE OF FUNDS.—A recipient of a grant under 

2 this section shall use the grant only for the purposes de3 scribed in subsection (a), including working with— 

4 (1) the Internal Revenue Service, including 

5 local offices of the Office of the Taxpayer Advocate, 

6 to help reduce tax compliance costs for such owners; 

7 and 

8 (2) owners of small business concerns who are 

9 subject to an audit by the Internal Revenue Service. 

10 (e) MINIMUM GRANT AMOUNT.—A grant awarded 

11 under this section may not be in an amount less than 

12 $200,000. 

13 (f) COOPERATIVE AGREEMENTS AND CONTRACTS.— 

14 The Administrator may enter into a cooperative agree15 ment or contract with the recipient of a grant under this 

16 section to provide additional assistance for the purposes 

17 described in subsection (a). 

18 (g) REPORT TO ADMINISTRATOR.—Not later than 18 

19 months after the date of receipt of a grant under this sec20 tion, the recipient of the grant shall submit to the Admin21 istrator a report describing how the grant funds were 

22 used. 

23 (h) EVALUATION OF PROGRAM.—Not later than 3 

24 years after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Ad25 ministrator shall submit to Congress a report that conVerDate Sep 11 2014 02:03 Jan 16, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H159.IH H159

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1 tains an evaluation of the grant program established 

2 under this section. 

3 (i) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

4 (1) ADMINISTRATOR.—The term ‘‘Adminis5 trator’’ means the Administrator of the Small Busi6 ness Administration. 

7 (2) SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN.—The term 

8 ‘‘small business concern’’ has the meaning given 

9 such term under section 3 of the Small Business Act 

10 (15 U.S.C. 632). 

11 (3) SMALL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT CEN12 TER.—The term ‘‘small business development cen13 ter’’ has the meaning given such term in section 3 

14 of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 632). 

15 (4) WOMEN’S BUSINESS CENTER.—The term 

16 ‘‘women’s business center’’ means a women’s busi17 ness center described under section 29 of the Small 

18 Business Act (15 U.S.C. 656). 

19 (j) LIMITATION ON USE OF FUNDS.—The Adminis20 trator may carry out this section only with amounts appro21 priated specifically to carry out this section under sub22 section (k). 


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1 (k) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There is 

2 authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section 

3 $5,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2020 and 2021. 

Æ 


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