I 
117TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 5206 
To require the Internal Revenue Service to issue a report on the tax gap, 
to establish a fellowship program within the Internal Revenue Service 
to recruit mid-career tax professionals to create and participate in an 
audit task force, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
SEPTEMBER 10, 2021 
Mr. BRADY (for himself, Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania, Mr. NUNES, Mr. 
BUCHANAN, Mr. SMITH of Nebraska, Mr. REED, Mrs. MILLER of West 
Virginia, Mr. SMITH of Missouri, Mr. RICE of South Carolina, Mr. 
SCHWEIKERT, Mrs. WALORSKI, Mr. LAHOOD, Mr. WENSTRUP, Mr. 
ARRINGTON, Mr. FERGUSON, Mr. ESTES, Mr. SMUCKER, and Mr. HERN) 
introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
Ways and Means, and in addition to the Committee on Financial Serv-
ices, 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 Internal Revenue Service to issue a report 
on the tax gap, to establish a fellowship program within 
the Internal Revenue Service to recruit mid-career tax 
professionals to create and participate in an audit task 
force, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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SECTION 1. TAX GAP PROJECTION. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days after the 
date of the enactment of this section, and no later than 
July 31 annually thereafter, the Commissioner of Internal 
Revenue shall submit to Congress a projection detailing 
the tax gap estimate for the most recent taxable year as 
is practicable using the most recently available data, and 
including identification and detailed descriptions of the 
data used for such projection and clear identification of 
the amount of the projected tax gap associated with non-
filing, underreporting, and underpayment (including iden-
tifying the amount subject to collection actions). 
(b) USE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE.—To the ex-
tent practicable, for purposes of reducing the burden on 
taxpayers subject to National Research Program audits, 
the Commissioner shall use artificial intelligence, including 
neural machine learning, and other available data analysis 
tools, including commercial analytic data providers, to cal-
culate a projection described in subsection (a). 
(c) NATIONAL RESEARCH PROGRAM AUDITS.—The 
Commissioner of Internal Revenue shall not undertake 
more National Research Program audits than in Fiscal 
Year 2021 to calculate a projection described in subsection 
(a). 
(d) TAX GAP.—For purposes of this section, the term 
‘‘tax gap’’ means the difference between tax liabilities 
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owed to the Internal Revenue Service and those liabilities 
actually collected by such Service. 
SEC. 2. JCT REPORT. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days after the 
submission of the first tax gap projection to Congress 
under section 1, and not later than 90 days after the sub-
mission of each successive submission, the Chief of Staff 
of the Joint Committee on Taxation shall submit to the 
Committee on Ways and Means of the House of Rep-
resentatives and the Committee on Finance of the Senate 
a report analyzing such projection, including— 
(1) identification of methodologies used, 
(2) any statistical or methodological uncertain-
ties, 
(3) the effect of outdated data, if any, on the 
accuracy of such projection, and 
(4) such additional information as the Joint 
Committee on Taxation determines is useful for 
Congress to use to assess and analyze the tax gap 
projections provided by the Commissioner of Inter-
nal Revenue. 
(b) RELEASE OF INFORMATION.—For purposes of fa-
cilitating the report described in subsection (a), the Sec-
retary of the Treasury shall, in a timely manner, provide 
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to the Joint Committee on Taxation such information as 
such committee requests. 
SEC. 3. RESTRICTION ON INCREASED ENFORCEMENT 
FUNDS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other provi-
sion of law, no funds appropriated to the Department of 
the Treasury for audit and enforcement purposes in excess 
of the levels appropriated for such purposes in fiscal year 
2021 may be expended for such purposes, including for 
salaries, expenses, and enforcement activities, until 180 
days after the Internal Revenue Service publishes an up-
dated tax gap projection pursuant to, and compliant with, 
section 1. 
(b) SUNSET.—The provisions of subsection (a) shall 
not apply after the date which is one year after the date 
of the enactment of this section. 
SEC. 4. RESTRICTION ON INCREASED FUNDING FOR OTHER 
SPECIFIED PURPOSES. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other provi-
sion of law, no funds appropriated to the Department of 
the Treasury in excess of the levels appropriated for speci-
fied purposes in fiscal year 2021 may be expended for 
specified purposes. 
(b) SPECIFIED PURPOSES.—For purposes of sub-
section (a), the term ‘‘specified purposes’’ means— 
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(1) the implementation of new information re-
porting requirements on flows of deposits and with-
drawals in individual and small business banking ac-
counts and other financial accounts, 
(2) the targeting of United States citizens in re-
sponse to the exercise by such citizens of any legally 
protected or recognized right guaranteed under the 
First Amendment to the United States Constitution, 
(3) the targeting of a group for regulatory scru-
tiny based on the ideological beliefs of such group, 
(4) the auditing of individual taxpayers with an 
adjusted gross income of less than $400,000, and 
(5) the hiring under an agreement pursuant to 
the Intragovernmental Personnel Act of 1970 (5 
U.S.C. 3371–3376) or any other authority of an au-
thorized researcher who is not a full-time Federal 
employee to access data subject to privacy protec-
tions afforded by section 6103 of the Internal Rev-
enue Code of 1986. 
SEC. 5. EFFICIENT USE OF EXISTING IRS RESOURCES. 
For purposes of increasing enforcement actions in 
areas of high noncompliance and reducing the corporate 
audit no-change rate of the Internal Revenue Service to 
below 20 percent by 2023— 
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(1) the Secretary (or the Secretary’s delegate) 
shall, not later than 180 days after the date of the 
enactment of this section— 
(A) update the methodology that is used 
for the selection of corporate returns for audit, 
and 
(B) reassign resources of the Internal Rev-
enue Service such that the majority of high-in-
come nonfilers are subject to enforcement ac-
tions, and 
(2) the Comptroller general of the United 
States shall, within one year after the date of the 
enactment of this section, issue a comprehensive re-
port to Congress on information returns and data 
collected by the Internal Revenue Service that could 
be deployed for compliance activities but that are 
not currently used for such activities. 
SEC. 6. IRS FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM. 
(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—Not later than September 30, 
2022, the Commissioner of Internal Revenue (hereinafter 
known as the ‘‘Commissioner’’) after consultation with the 
Chief Counsel of the Internal Revenue Service (hereinafter 
known as the ‘‘Chief Counsel’’), shall establish within the 
Internal Revenue Service a fellowship program (herein-
after known as the ‘‘program’’) to recruit private sector 
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tax experts to join the Internal Revenue Service to create 
and participate in the audit task force established under 
subsection (e). 
(b) OBJECTIVE.—The Commissioner, after consulta-
tion with the Chief Counsel, shall design the program in 
a manner such that the program— 
(1) addresses such tax cases handled by the In-
ternal Revenue Service as the Commissioner deter-
mines— 
(A) are the most complex, or 
(B) include new and emerging issues, and 
(2) recruits and retains outstanding and quali-
fied tax experts. 
(c) ADVERTISEMENT OF PROGRAM.—The Commis-
sioner shall advertise the program in such a way as to 
attract mid-career tax professionals, including certified 
public accountants, tax attorneys, and such other tax pro-
fessionals as the Commissioner determines are appro-
priately qualified to handle the most complex tax cases. 
(d) STRUCTURE.— 
(1) IN
GENERAL.—The program shall be 
staffed by not fewer than 30 fellows at the discretion 
of the Commissioner based on needs of the Internal 
Revenue Service and the availability of qualified can-
didates. 
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(2) TERM OF SERVICE.— 
(A) IN GENERAL.—Each fellow shall each 
be hired for a 2-, 3-, or 4-year term of service. 
(B) EXTENSIONS.— 
(i) IN GENERAL.—A fellow may apply 
for, and the Commissioner may grant, a 1- 
year extension of the fellowship. 
(ii) NO LIMIT ON NUMBER OF EXTEN-
SIONS.—There shall be no limit on the 
number of extensions under paragraph (1). 
(3) FELLOWSHIP
VACANCIES.—The Commis-
sioner, after consultation with the Chief Counsel, 
shall fill vacant fellowships— 
(A) in such a manner as to ensure that the 
program is staffed with no fewer than 15 fel-
lows, and 
(B) as soon as practicable after the va-
cancy arises. 
(4) HIRING
AUTHORITY.—The Commissioner 
shall have authority to permanently hire a fellow at 
the end of the term of service for such fellow. 
(e) TASK FORCE.—Not later than the date on which 
the first fellowship is awarded under this section, the Com-
missioner shall establish a task force within the Internal 
Revenue Service and the office of the Chief Counsel in 
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both national and regional office placements that includes 
the fellows hired pursuant to subsection (d), the purpose 
of which is to— 
(1) perform audit case selection, 
(2) educate Internal Revenue Service employees 
on emerging issues, 
(3) audit selected taxpayers, 
(4) address offshore tax evasion and issues im-
plicating the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, 
and 
(5) identify, mentor, and train junior employees 
from the Internal Revenue Service with respect to 
audits. 
(f) COMPOSITION.—The task force established under 
subsection (e) may be composed of with both— 
(1) fellows, and 
(2) permanent employees of the Internal Rev-
enue Service. 
(g) PAY OF FELLOWS.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of the Treas-
ury (or the Secretary’s delegate) shall determine, 
subject to the provisions of this subsection, the pay 
of fellows recruited under subsection (a). 
(2) PAY SCALE.—For purposes of paragraph 
(1), the pay of a fellow shall not be less than the 
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minimum rate payable for GS–15 of the General 
Schedule and shall not exceed the amount of annual 
compensation (excluding expenses) specified in sec-
tion 102 of title 3. 
(h) ADMINISTRATION OF PROGRAM.—The Secretary 
may appoint a lead program officer to administer and ad-
vertise the program. 
(i) ANNUAL REVIEW AND REPORT.—Not later than 
1 year after the date on which the first fellowship is 
awarded under this section, and annually thereafter, the 
Commissioner shall submit to Congress a report con-
taining— 
(1) an analysis of the effects of the program, 
(2) an analysis of the return on investment of 
the program, including calculations of all costs in-
curred and all tax revenue and penalties collected 
due to the work of the task force, 
(3) a description of the total number of fellows 
who apply each year, and 
(4) recommendations for changes to the pro-
gram, if any. 
(j) RULES AND REGULATIONS.—The Commissioner, 
with the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury (or the 
Secretary’s delegate), shall promulgate such rules and reg-
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ulations as may be necessary for the efficient administra-
tion of the program. 
Æ 
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