I 
119TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 6956 
To require electronically prepared tax returns to include scannable code when 
submitted on paper, and to require the use of optical character recogni-
tion technology for paper documents received by the Internal Revenue 
Service. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JANUARY 7, 2026 
Mr. SCHNEIDER (for himself and Mr. YAKYM) introduced the following bill; 
which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means 
A BILL 
To require electronically prepared tax returns to include 
scannable code when submitted on paper, and to require 
the use of optical character recognition technology for 
paper documents received by the Internal Revenue Serv-
ice. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Barcode Automation 
for Revenue Collection to Organize Disbursement and En-
hance Efficiency Act’’ or the ‘‘BARCODE Efficiency 
Act’’. 
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SEC. 2. SCANNING AND DIGITIZATION OF TAX RETURNS 
AND CORRESPONDENCE. 
(a) RETURNS PREPARED ELECTRONICALLY
AND 
SUBMITTED ON PAPER.—With respect to any Federal tax 
return which is prepared electronically, but is printed and 
filed on paper— 
(1) such return shall bear a code which, when 
scanned, converts the data included in such return 
to electronic format, and 
(2) subject to subsection (b)(1)(B), the Internal 
Revenue Service shall use barcode scanning tech-
nology to convert the data included in such returns 
to electronic format. 
(b) OPTICAL
CHARACTER
RECOGNITION
SOFT-
WARE.—With respect to— 
(1) any Federal tax return which— 
(A) is not prepared electronically and is 
printed and filed on paper, or 
(B) is described in subsection (a)(1) but, 
for any reason, the data included in such return 
cannot be accurately converted into electronic 
format, or 
(2) any correspondence which is received by the 
Internal Revenue Service in a paper form (with the 
exception of any such correspondence which has 
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been received by the Internal Revenue Service in 
electronic format), 
the Internal Revenue Service shall use optical character 
recognition technology (or any functionally similar tech-
nology) to transcribe such return or correspondence. 
(c) EXCEPTION.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—Subsection (a) or (b) shall 
not apply to the extent that the Secretary of the 
Treasury or the Secretary’s delegate determines that 
the technology described in such subsection is slower 
or less reliable than— 
(A) the process of manually transcribing 
returns or correspondence received in a paper 
form, or 
(B) any other process that the Internal 
Revenue Service is using or would otherwise 
use. 
(2) REPORT TO CONGRESS.—Any exception to 
the application of subsection (a) or (b) pursuant to 
paragraph (1) shall not take effect unless the Sec-
retary provides a report to the Committee on Ways 
and Means of the House of Representatives and the 
Committee on Finance of the Senate regarding the 
determination made by the Secretary under such 
paragraph within 30 days of such determination. 
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(d) EFFECTIVE DATE.—This section shall apply to— 
(1) any individual income tax return (as defined 
in section 6011(e)(3)(C) of the Internal Revenue 
Code of 1986) received on or after January 1 of the 
first calendar year beginning more than 180 days 
after the date of enactment of this Act, 
(2) any estate tax return (as described in sec-
tion 6018 of such Code) or gift tax return (as de-
scribed in section 6019 of such Code) received on or 
after January 1 of the first calendar year beginning 
more than 24 months after the date of enactment of 
this Act, and 
(3) any other return or correspondence received 
on or after January 1 of the first calendar year be-
ginning more than 12 months after the date of en-
actment of this Act. 
Æ 
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