[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1979 Introduced in House (IH)]

114th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1979

To strengthen the protections from levy by the Internal Revenue Service 
                  for taxpayers in economic hardship.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 22, 2015

   Mrs. Watson Coleman (for herself, Ms. Norton, Mr. Meeks, and Mrs. 
  Lawrence) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                      Committee on Ways and Means

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To strengthen the protections from levy by the Internal Revenue Service 
                  for taxpayers in economic hardship.

    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 ``Taxpayer Economic Hardship 
Protection Act of 2015''.

SEC. 2. PROTECTION FROM LEVY FOR TAXPAYERS IN ECONOMIC HARDSHIP.

    The Secretary of the Treasury (or the Secretary's delegate) shall 
take the following actions to protect taxpayers in economic hardship 
from levy:
            (1) Establish quality review procedures that measure 
        whether employees of the Internal Revenue Service identified 
        and considered the possibility that a taxpayer was in economic 
        hardship before levying.
            (2) Establish quality review procedures that measure 
        whether, in each case in which an employee of the Internal 
        Revenue Service identifies economic hardship of a taxpayer, the 
        employee adhered to the decision by the United States Tax Court 
        entitled, ``Vinatieri against Commissioner'' (133 T.C. 392 
        (2009)), by placing the account of the taxpayer in a currently 
        not collectible status rather than levying on the taxpayer.
            (3) Develop, and publish as part of the Internal Revenue 
        Manual, guidelines for how collection employees of the Internal 
        Revenue Service, on the basis of information in Internal 
        Revenue Service and third-party databases, should consider the 
        possibility that a taxpayer is in economic hardship before 
        issuing a levy.
            (4) Adjust the Federal Payment Levy Program low income 
        filter to include accounts with unfiled returns.
            (5) Inform collection employees of the Internal Revenue 
        Service of procedural changes described in the preceding 
        paragraphs by issuing a separate alert and a memorandum.
            (6) Update training materials and job aids to reflect the 
        decision of the United States Tax Court entitled, ``Vinatieri 
        against Commissioner'' (133 T.C. 392 (2009)) and the changes to 
        the Internal Revenue Manual made in 2013 relating to liability 
        collection (part 5, chapter 19) and notice of levy (part 5, 
        chapter 11).
                                 <all>