Mike Crapo (R-ID)· Sep 30, 2026
S.Amdt. 6847: In the nature of a substitute.
Adopted
With no one objecting, no names recorded
A Republican bill with 1 Democratic cosponsor · See the cosponsor
Last activity — Passed Senate with an amendment and an amendment to the Title by Unanimous Consent.
Passed both chambers, not yet sent to the President
Both the House and the Senate have passed it, though not necessarily the same text.
If the two chambers passed identical wording, the final copy is being prepared for the President. If they did not, one chamber must accept the other's version or the two negotiate a single one — nothing goes to the President until the text is identical.
Its path through Congress
- Introduced
- Passed House voice vote
- Passed Senate unanimous consent
No one's position on it was recorded: the House by voice vote (members called out yes or no together), and the Senate by unanimous consent (no one objected, so there was no vote).
What this bill would do
H.R. 5349, known as the Taxpayer Assistance and Service Act, aims to improve services provided to taxpayers by the Internal Revenue Service by providing greater judicial review and administrative support. The bill focuses heavily on enhancing customer service, modernizing tax administration through digitization, and expanding electronic access to taxpayer information. It also provides specific protections and procedural rights for taxpayers, small businesses, whistleblowers, and American citizens living abroad. Furthermore, the legislation institutes stronger regulations, oversight, and penalties for tax return preparers. Finally, the bill addresses operational procedures for the Office of the Taxpayer Advocate and the IRS Independent Office of Appeals.
Yes· 3 of 5
- Scored +5
Does this protect the right to fair treatment by the courts?
The bill protects individual rights by allowing the Tax Court to toll filing deadlines due to inaccessible filing locations.
- Scored +3
Would households on low incomes be better off under this?
The bill provides protections against missed filing deadlines due to technical or location-based inaccessibility.
- Scored +3
Would middle-income households be better off under this?
The bill improves access to judicial review and discovery for taxpayers facing tax deficiencies.
The opposite
No question was scored the opposite.
How the text last changed
Engrossed Amendment Senate (9/30/2026), compared with Referred in Senate. Each change is on the Text tab.
The newer version of the bill changes its title to the "Taxpayer Assistance and Service Act" and extensively rewrites the legislation to add ten new titles focused on tax administration, customer service, services for citizens abroad, judicial review, the Taxpayer Advocate, tax return preparers, appeals, whistlebusters, hostages, small businesses, and miscellaneous provisions. It introduces numerous operational requirements for the Internal Revenue Service, such as electronic processing and digitization of paper documents, real-time website dashboards displaying call wait times and backlogs, expanded callback technology, and enhanced online taxpayer accounts. The bill adjusts various fees, rules, and penalties, including eliminating installment agreement fees for individuals with incomes at or below 250 percent of the applicable poverty level, and adds protections, tax deadline postponements, and refund programs for hostages and wrongfully detained individuals. Additionally, it grants the Tax Court new authorities—such as hearing refund suits up to $2,000,000 and small disputes up to $100,000—and modifies rules for tax return preparers, including establishing a preparer identification number validation program and adding new training, suitability, and penalty provisions.
Who it would affect, and how
Potential Positive Impacts for People
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Section 102: The establishment of a real-time public dashboard informing taxpayers of backlogs and wait times could benefit individuals by providing transparency and helping them navigate IRS communication channels more efficiently.
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Section 105: The expansion of online accounts allows taxpayers to view their returns, documents, notices, and letters from the preceding six-year period, which helps individuals easily access their personal tax history and respond to the IRS digitally.
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Section 107: The elimination of installment agreement fees for individuals with an adjusted gross income not exceeding 250 percent of the applicable poverty level provides financial relief to low-income taxpayers seeking to pay off their tax liabilities over time.
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Section 110: Unlocking low-income taxpayer clinic funding by modifying the matching fund requirements can expand the availability of free or low-cost assistance to additional taxpayers who need help resolving disputes with the IRS.
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Section 306: The authorization of de novo review of innocent spouse relief by the Tax Court and other courts benefits individuals seeking relief from joint tax liabilities by ensuring independent and comprehensive judicial scrutiny of their cases.
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Section 405: Operations to assist taxpayers experiencing economic hardships during a lapse in appropriations ensure that critical IRS and Taxpayer Advocate services remain available to protect vulnerable individuals when the government shuts down.
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Section 801: The postponement of tax deadlines and abatement of penalties for hostages and individuals wrongfully detained abroad provides essential financial and administrative relief for these vulnerable citizens and their families.
Potential Negative Impacts for People
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Section 502: The creation of new penalties for tax return preparers who use invalid electronic filing identification numbers or fail to furnish valid identifying numbers could burden preparers, potentially leading to increased costs for taxpayers who rely on professional tax preparation services.
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Section 504: The new requirements and background check suitability standards for obtaining a preparer tax identification number may impose administrative hurdles and educational compliance burdens on individual tax return preparers.
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Section 1002: Requiring large partnerships with more than 50 partners or assets totaling $1,000,000 or more to file returns on magnetic media places a strict filing mandate on these business entities, which could be burdensome for certain operations to implement.
Groups and Interests Ranking
Every group the model scored this bill for, from -10 to +10. Tap or hover a score for the reason it gave.
- Governance And Ideology
- Does this protect the right to fair treatment by the courts? — The bill protects individual rights by allowing the Tax Court to toll filing deadlines due to inaccessible filing locations. Does this make what the government does easier for the public to see? — The act improves judicial accountability by applying federal disqualification standards to Tax Court judges.
- Demographic And Interest Groups
- Would households on low incomes be better off under this? — The bill provides protections against missed filing deadlines due to technical or location-based inaccessibility. Would middle-income households be better off under this? — The bill improves access to judicial review and discovery for taxpayers facing tax deficiencies.
- Economy And Finance
- Does this give people more protection from unfair business practices? — The bill provides taxpayers with better discovery tools through subpoena power to facilitate settlements.
The changes one chamber made to the other chamber’s version, as it passed them
What changed from Referred in Senate
The newer version of the bill changes its title to the "Taxpayer Assistance and Service Act" and extensively rewrites the legislation to add ten new titles focused on tax administration, customer service, services for citizens abroad, judicial review, the Taxpayer Advocate, tax return preparers, appeals, whistlebusters, hostages, small businesses, and miscellaneous provisions. It introduces numerous operational requirements for the Internal Revenue Service, such as electronic processing and digitization of paper documents, real-time website dashboards displaying call wait times and backlogs, expanded callback technology, and enhanced online taxpayer accounts. The bill adjusts various fees, rules, and penalties, including eliminating installment agreement fees for individuals with incomes at or below 250 percent of the applicable poverty level, and adds protections, tax deadline postponements, and refund programs for hostages and wrongfully detained individuals. Additionally, it grants the Tax Court new authorities—such as hearing refund suits up to $2,000,000 and small disputes up to $100,000—and modifies rules for tax return preparers, including establishing a preparer identification number validation program and adding new training, suitability, and penalty provisions.
Each change
- Section 1 changes the short title of the Act to the "Taxpayer Assistance and Service Act" and adds a table of contents and definitions for the Secretary.
- Sections 101 through 115 add provisions requiring the IRS to accept and electronically process electronic returns, digitize paper documents using optical character recognition, maintain a real-time website dashboard for phone wait times and processing delays, expand electronic access to return and refund information, offer callback options, expand online taxpayer accounts, automate refund offset bypasses for certain low-income taxpayers, eliminate installment agreement fees for individuals with incomes at or below 250 percent of the poverty level, inform economic hardship taxpayers of collection alternatives, send quarterly notices to certain delinquent taxpayers, unlock low-income taxpayer clinic funding by modifying matching fund rules, streamline Chief Counsel reviews of offers-in-compromise, modify procedural requirements for penalties and disallowance periods, require the return of excess amounts collected under offers-in-compromise, extend the period to return wrongfully levied amounts, and require periodic reports to Congress on implementation, fraud, and document management.
- Sections 201 through 205 add provisions requiring studies and reports on combining tax and foreign bank account reporting and tax laws compliance for Americans abroad, extending the time to 120 days for persons outside the United States to request math error abatements, clarifying assessment authority and providing pre-assessment appeals for foreign information return penalties, and repealing due date requirements for certain foreign gift and trust information returns.
- Sections 301 through 312 reorganize and expand judicial review provisions, authorizing subpoenas before hearings, establishing Tax Court authority to grant relief from final judgments or orders, empowering special trial judges to hear additional cases and address contempt up to Class C misdemeanor limits, establishing judge disqualification rules, requiring specific notices and Tax Court review for multi-year credit disallowance periods, allowing de novo review for innocent spouse relief, clarifying that certain court filing deadlines are nonjurisdictional and subject to equitable tolling, clarifying Tax Court jurisdiction in collection due process appeals, authorizing the Tax Court to issue refunds and hear refund or credit suits up to $2,000,000, permitting refund claims when full tax is not paid under installment agreements or hardship status, and adjusting the small dispute threshold to $100,000 with inflation adjustments.
- Sections 401 through 405 authorize the National Taxpayer Advocate to directly hire and appoint independent counsel and make personnel decisions, grant the Office of the Taxpayer Advocate access to IRS information, legal advice, and meetings, repeal the limitation period suspension for taxpayers seeking TAS assistance, and treat certain IRS hardship assistance functions as emergencies during a lapse in appropriations.
- Sections 501 through 504 modify rules for tax return preparers by updating the definition of returns, increasing penalties for improper conduct and establishing a $250 penalty and $75,000 annual cap for using invalid preparer or electronic filing identification numbers, creating a real-time EFIN validation program, adding a criminal felony penalty for willfully failing to provide a valid preparer identification number, adding penalties for misappropriating taxpayer refunds, and granting the Secretary authority to deny, suspend, revoke, or place educational and suitability requirements on preparer tax identification numbers.
- Sections 601 through 605 authorize the IRS Independent Office of Appeals to hire independent attorneys and direct-hire non-enforcement personnel, require written explanations and appeal rights for refund disallowances with a 1-percentage-point interest increase for delayed determinations, provide appeals for returned offers-in-compromise, and clarify the duties and broad right of appeal to the Independent Office of Appeals.
- Sections 701 through 706 amend whistleblower provisions by establishing de novo review standards based on the administrative record for whistleblower award determinations in the Tax Court, exempting whistleblower awards from sequestration, granting whistleblowers anonymity in Tax Court proceedings absent overriding societal interests, requiring lists of top tax avoidance schemes in annual reports, providing interest on unpaid awards after a 12-month period, and correcting attorney fee deduction references.
- Sections 801 and 802 establish tax deadline postponements, penalty abatements, and a specialized refund program for U.S. nationals unlawfully or wrongfully detained abroad or held hostage abroad and their spouses.
- Sections 901 through 905 implement voluntary withholding agreements for independent contractors, extend the mailbox rule to permitted electronic submissions and payments received within 3 business days, require specific third-party contact notices identifying intended information and providing a 45-day response window with good cause exceptions, change the estimated tax filing deadline for farmers and fishermen from March 1 to April 15, and establish a Business Child Care Liaison within the IRS.
- Sections 1001 through 1006 permit the redisclosure of education loan tax information to the Congressional Budget Office, require partnerships with more than 50 partners or $1,000,000 in assets to file on magnetic media, clarify that preparer fraud intent applies to both spouses on joint returns, make technical amendments to disaster extension rules, adjust filing dates for certain information returns to January 31, increase criminal fines and prison terms for unauthorized disclosures of taxpayer information, create a new criminal penalty for IRS contractors failing to maintain confidentiality safeguards, increase civil damages for unauthorized disclosures from $1,000 to $5,000, and amend the bill's title.
Written by an AI model from a comparison of this version’s text with the one before it, not by a person. .
Mike Crapo (R-ID)· Sep 30, 2026
S.Amdt. 6848: To amend the title.
Adopted
With no one objecting, no names recorded
- 9/30/2026
- Senate Committee on Finance discharged by Unanimous Consent.
- Measure laid before Senate by unanimous consent. (consideration: CR S5207-5208)
- Passed/agreed to in Senate: Passed Senate with an amendment and an amendment to the Title by Unanimous Consent.
- Passed Senate with an amendment and an amendment to the Title by Unanimous Consent.
- 12/2/2025
- Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
- 12/1/2025
- Motion to reconsider laid on the table Agreed to without objection.
- Passed/agreed to in House: On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended Agreed to by voice vote. (text: CR H4942-4944)
- On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended Agreed to by voice vote. (text: CR H4942-4944)
- DEBATE - The House proceeded with forty minutes of debate on H.R. 5349.
- Considered under suspension of the rules. (consideration: CR H4942-4944)
- Mr. Smith (MO) moved to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended.
- 10/3/2025
- Reported (Amended) by the Committee on Ways and Means. H. Rept. 119-335.
- Placed on the Union Calendar, Calendar No. 287.
- 9/17/2025
- Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held
- Ordered to be Reported in the Nature of a Substitute (Amended) by the Yeas and Nays: 40 - 0.
- 9/15/2025
- Referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means.
- 1 Cosponsor added.
- Introduced in House
One bill Congress.gov lists as related to this one — companions in the other chamber, earlier versions, and bills this one absorbed or was folded into.
Terri SewellDemocrat · Alabama