[Congressional Bills 104th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3137 Introduced in House (IH)]







104th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 3137

 To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to clarify the reasonable 
 cause exception from the penalty for failures to file tax returns or 
                               pay taxes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 21, 1996

   Mr. Bunning of Kentucky introduced the following bill; which was 
              referred to the Committee on Ways and Means

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to clarify the reasonable 
 cause exception from the penalty for failures to file tax returns or 
                               pay taxes.

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

SECTION 1. CLARIFICATION OF REASONABLE CAUSE EXCEPTION FOR FAILURE TO 
              FILE TAX RETURN OR PAY TAX.

    (a) In General.--Section 6651 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 
(relating to failure to file return or pay tax) is amended by adding at 
the end the following new subsection:
    ``(g) Clarification of Reasonable Cause Exception.--A failure 
referred to in subsection (a) with respect to any return or payment 
shall be treated as due to reasonable cause and not due to willful 
neglect if--
            ``(1) such failure is by an employee or agent of the 
        taxpayer who, on or before the due date for such return or 
        payment, submitted false documents to the taxpayer showing that 
        such return or payment was timely made, and
            ``(2) the taxpayer exercised ordinary business care and 
        prudence in attempting to assure that such a failure would not 
        occur and had no reason to know on or before such date that 
        such failure occurred.''
    (b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by subsection (a) shall 
apply to failures after the date of the enactment of this Act.
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