[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3440 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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114th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 3440

To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide uniform standards 
    for the use of electronic signatures for third-party disclosure 
                            authorizations.


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                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           September 28, 2016

Mr. Portman (for himself and Mr. Bennet) introduced the following bill; 
     which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide uniform standards 
    for the use of electronic signatures for third-party disclosure 
                            authorizations.

    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 ``Electronic Signature Standards Act 
of 2016''.

SEC. 2. UNIFORM STANDARDS FOR THE USE OF ELECTRONIC SIGNATURES FOR 
              THIRD-PARTY DISCLOSURE AUTHORIZATIONS.

    Paragraph (3) of section 6061(b) of the Internal Revenue Code of 
1986 is amended to read as follows:
            ``(3) Published guidance.--
                    ``(A) In general.--The Secretary shall publish 
                guidance as appropriate to define and implement any 
                waiver of the signature requirements or any method 
                adopted under paragraph (1).
                    ``(B) Electronic signatures for third-party 
                disclosure authorizations.--Not later than 6 months 
                after the date of the enactment of this subparagraph, 
                the Secretary shall publish guidance to establish 
                uniform standards and procedures for the acceptance of 
                signatures in digital or other electronic form for 
                purposes of--
                            ``(i) any request for disclosure of a 
                        taxpayer's return or return information under 
                        section 6103(c), and
                            ``(ii) any power of attorney executed by 
                        the taxpayer.''.
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