Title: Simpler Tax Filing Act of 2017
Policy area: Taxation

Summary:
Simpler Tax Filing Act of 2017
This bill expresses the sense of Congress that the Internal Revenue Service should begin offering pre-prepared tax returns to as many taxpayers as possible by tax year 2022.
The Department of the Treasury must report to the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee on actions necessary to achieve the goal of offering pre-prepared tax returns to taxpayers by tax year 2022, with an analysis of the budgetary, administrative, and legislative barriers to achieving such goal, including the amount of appropriations that would be required.

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 809 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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115th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 809

 To require the Secretary of the Treasury to study the feasibility of 
providing certain taxpayers with an optional, pre-prepared tax return, 
                        and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             April 4, 2017

  Mrs. Shaheen (for herself and Ms. Warren) introduced the following 
  bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To require the Secretary of the Treasury to study the feasibility of 
providing certain taxpayers with an optional, pre-prepared tax return, 
                        and for other purposes.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Simpler Tax Filing Act of 2017''.

SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

    It is the sense of Congress that--
            (1) the Secretary of the Treasury should provide as many 
        taxpayers as possible with the option of receiving a tax return 
        that is pre-prepared by the Secretary of the Treasury; and
            (2) it should be the goal of the Internal Revenue Service 
        to begin offering pre-prepared returns to filers by tax year 
        2022.

SEC. 3. REPORT TO CONGRESS.

    Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, 
the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Taxpayer 
Advocate Service, shall provide a report to the Committee on Ways and 
Means of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Finance of 
the Senate on actions necessary to achieve the goal of offering pre-
prepared tax returns to filers by tax year 2022, including--
            (1) changes necessary to the filing deadlines for employers 
        and institutions for information provided through Forms W-2 and 
        1099;
            (2) actions necessary to expedite processing of information 
        from Form W-2 by the Social Security Administration;
            (3) actions necessary to expedite processing of information 
        reporting by the Internal Revenue Service;
            (4) actions to help businesses submit Form W-2 more easily, 
        and electronically;
            (5) partnerships with employers and financial institutions 
        to encourage early reporting;
            (6) delaying the start of the tax filing season;
            (7) ensuring that taxpayers have access to secure online 
        accounts to access their information, while also having the 
        option to download their information for integration into 
        private tax preparation software; and
            (8) incorporating best practices from other countries for 
        expediting the availability of return information.
Such report shall also include an analysis of the budgetary, 
administrative, and legislative barriers to achieving this goal, 
including the amount of appropriations that would be required.
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