[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 495 Introduced in House (IH)]

113th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 495

   To make the Internal Revenue Service Free File Program permanent.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            February 5, 2013

 Mr. Roskam (for himself and Mr. Kind) introduced the following bill; 
         which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To make the Internal Revenue Service Free File Program permanent.

    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 ``Free File Program Act of 2013''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds the following:
            (1) The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Free File program as 
        established by the IRS pursuant to public rulemaking and set 
        forth in the Federal Register, Vol. 67, No. 213, Monday, 
        November 4, 2002, pages 67247-67251, and in implementing 
        agreements and governing rules and requirements between the IRS 
        and the tax software and electronic industry in 2002, 2005, and 
        2009, has been successful and significant in the efforts of the 
        Federal Government to increase the electronic filing of 
        individual income tax returns.
            (2) By the end of the current tax return filing season 
        around 40,000,000 Federal individual income tax returns will 
        have been prepared and filed electronically for free under the 
        IRS Free File program.
            (3) The IRS Free File program offers Federal individual 
        income tax return preparation and electronic filing services to 
        more than 70 percent of taxpayers, approximately 98,000,000 
        taxpayers at the end of the current tax filing period, at no 
        cost to the taxpayers or to the Federal Government from tax 
        software and electronic filing companies participating in the 
        program, currently 16 companies.
            (4) By the end of the current tax return filing season, it 
        is estimated that the IRS Free File program will have saved 
        taxpayers approximately $1,110,000,000 and will have saved the 
        Federal Government hundreds of millions of dollars.
            (5) Under the IRS Free File program, the IRS and the 
        companies participating in the program have made substantial 
        improvements to the program to provide better products and 
        services to eligible taxpayers.
            (6) The IRS Free File program must be maintained in order 
        to reach and maintain Congress' goal as set forth in the 
        Internal Revenue Service Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998 
        of having 80 percent of all Federal individual income tax 
        returns filed electronically.
            (7) The IRS and the participating tax preparation companies 
        have integrated the IRS Free File program with State tax 
        systems to enable taxpayers to also file their State tax 
        returns in conjunction with their IRS Free File filings.
            (8) Twenty-two States and the District of Columbia now 
        operate a Free File program patterned after the IRS Free File 
        program again at no cost to the State taxpayers or the State 
        governments.
            (9) At the end of the current tax return filing season, it 
        is estimated that the Free File States will have saved hundreds 
        of millions of dollars collectively.

SEC. 3. INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE FREE FILE PROGRAM.

    (a) The Secretary of the Treasury, or his delegate, is authorized 
and directed to continue to implement and operate the Internal Revenue 
Service (IRS) Free File program as established by the IRS in the public 
rulemaking of November 4, 2002, and subsequent agreements and governing 
rules established pursuant thereto in 2002, 2005, and 2009.
    (b) The IRS Free File program shall continue to provide free online 
individual income tax preparation and electronic filing services to 
lower income, working poor, underprivileged, disadvantaged, or 
underserved populations that comprise 70 percent of the lowest income 
taxpayers.
    (c) The Internal Revenue Service shall continue to work 
cooperatively with the private sector technology industry through the 
Free File Alliance in providing free individual income tax preparation 
and electronic filing services and shall not compete with the private 
sector in providing these services to taxpayers, nor acquire, develop, 
or deploy enabling systems to duplicate or replace private tax 
preparation services.
    (d) The Secretary of the Treasury, or his delegate, may not 
establish, develop, sponsor, acquire, or make available individual 
income tax preparation software or electronic filing services that are 
offered under the IRS Free File program, except through the IRS Free 
File program, the Internal Revenue Service's Taxpayer Assistance 
Centers, Tax Counseling for the Elderly, and volunteer income tax 
assistance (VITA) programs.
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