Providing Internal Revenue Service Publication 17 Free to Taxpayers

Floor Speech

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Mr. GROTHMAN. Mr. Speaker, one of the frustrating things about the Federal Government is that it acts without realizing the hardship it is causing other people.

The reason for this bill is that, recently, the IRS decided not to publish in paper form Publication 17, which is a necessary publication for anybody who has a moderately difficult income tax return to prepare. There are two classes of people who are affected by this-- first of all, the people who do their own returns.

Like many other agencies, the IRS only looks at the costs that it is directly imposing on the citizenry. It doesn't look at the costs it is indirectly imposing on the citizenry. In this country, the average cost of a professionally prepared tax return is easily over $200. If we turned around and billed everybody $200 from the government, obviously, we couldn't pass that bill around here; but because of the complexity of our Internal Revenue Code and of people having to go out and pay that $200, we don't associate it with a tax, but it makes people poorer just as if we had directly increased their taxes. When you don't provide copies of instructions for a tax return, you are punishing people who are trying to save that $200, $250, $300 by doing their own returns.

Secondly, you are disproportionately affecting people who cannot navigate the Internet as well--in other words, our older population. It just seems offensive--as you have older people out there, some who are not familiar with the Internet--saying: No. No. We won't go with paper for now. That, again, is kind of--I guess I will call it--elitism on the part of the IRS because it doesn't need the paper form. It is saying the 75- or 80-year-old who is still doing his return doesn't need the form.

We are, therefore, asking for this bill to be passed and are asking the IRS to, one more time, have sympathy for the people who may not have the additional $200, $250, $300 to pay a professional preparer and for the older citizens who may not be comfortable preparing their return online.

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