Taxpayer First Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. SEWELL of Alabama. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 5444, the Taxpayer First Act. I want to take a point of personal privilege and congratulate the gentlewoman from Kansas and the gentleman from Georgia for working together and showing the Nation that, indeed, Democrats and Republicans can put party aside and actually get something done here in the Nation's Capitol. I especially want to thank the gentleman from Georgia, Congressman Lewis, who, of course, is a native son of Alabama.

On this tax day, this bill is an opportunity for us to change the relationship many taxpayers have with the Internal Revenue Service. Tax season is a stressful time for millions of Americans, and the compliance burden on the average American and small-business owner is unnecessarily difficult. We are taking important steps today to make the tax filing experience more sensible, fairer, and more efficient.

The base text of this bill includes the text of the bill that I introduced with our Republican colleague, Jason Smith, the Preserving Taxpayers' Rights Act. Our provisions, as a part of this bill, will introduce process reforms in four ways to help the Internal Revenue Service become more efficient and strengthen its ability to provide service to its customers.

First, our provisions would maintain taxpayers' legal right to have their case heard by the independent and impartial IRS Office of Appeals to ensure the timely, efficient, and cost-effective resolution of any tax disputes between a taxpayer and the IRS.

Secondly, it will ensure that cases the IRS designates for litigation can only be used where the matter involves a tax abuse that affects a large amount of taxpayers.

Thirdly, the provision in our bill that is in this underlying text would ensure that the use of designated summonses that extend the time period for the IRS to assess a tax liability are properly authorized and only used when taxpayers are uncooperative and refuse to provide information requested by the IRS.

Finally, the provision would also prevent the IRS from outsourcing Federal tax audits of private taxpayers to outside law firms.

In summary, our provisions in the bill will improve the independent appeals process, ensuring that the existing right of appeal is maintained and strengthened for taxpayers.

Mr. Speaker, overall, H.R. 5444 is a good bill that will make the tax filing experience much more sensible, fairer, and efficient. I urge all of my colleagues to support this bill.

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