[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5630 Introduced in House (IH)]

112th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 5630

  To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide an increased 
 penalty in certain cases of fraudulent understatement of a taxpayer's 
                  liability by a tax return preparer.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 8, 2012

Mr. Paulsen (for himself, Mr. McDermott, Mr. Boustany, and Mr. Lewis of 
   Georgia) 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 provide an increased 
 penalty in certain cases of fraudulent understatement of a taxpayer's 
                  liability by a tax return preparer.

    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 ``Fighting Tax Fraud Act of 2012''.

SEC. 2. INCREASED PENALTY FOR CERTAIN FRAUDULENT UNDERSTATEMENTS OF 
              TAXPAYER'S LIABILITY BY TAX RETURN PREPARER.

    (a) In General.--Section 6694 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 
is amended by redesignating subsections (c), (d), (e), and (f) as 
subsections (d), (e), (f), and (g), respectively, and by inserting 
after subsection (b) the following new subsection:
    ``(c) Understatement Due to Fraud.--
            ``(1) In general.--Any tax return preparer who prepares any 
        return or claim for refund with respect to which any part of an 
        understatement of liability is due to conduct described in 
        paragraph (2) shall pay (in addition to any other penalties) a 
        penalty with respect to each such return or claim in an amount 
        equal to the greater of--
                    ``(A) $5,000, or
                    ``(B) the amount of such understatement of 
                liability.
            ``(2) Fraudulent conduct.--Conduct is described in this 
        paragraph if such conduct consists of--
                    ``(A) a willful modification of any return or claim 
                for refund which--
                            ``(i) creates an understatement of 
                        liability, and
                            ``(ii) is made by the tax return preparer 
                        after such return or claim has been signed by 
                        the taxpayer, and
                    ``(B) a willful attempt by the tax return preparer 
                to receive the proceeds of a refund any portion of 
                which is attributable to such understatement of 
                liability.''.
    (b) Conforming Amendments.--Subsections (d) and (e) of section 6694 
of such Code, as redesignated by subsection (a), are each amended by 
striking ``subsection (a) or (b)'' each place it appears and inserting 
``subsection (a), (b), or (c)''.
    (c) Effective Date.--The amendments made by this section shall 
apply to returns and claims prepared after the date of the enactment of 
this Act.
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