117 HR 7440 IH: IRS Customer Service and Modernization Act of 2022
U.S. House of Representatives
2022-04-07
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I
117th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 7440
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
April 7, 2022
Mrs. Bice of Oklahoma (for herself, Mr. Rogers of Alabama, Mr. Meijer, and Mrs. Cherfilus-McCormick) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means
A BILL
To require the Secretary of the Treasury to establish a plan to improve customer service and establish new modes of communication with the public, and for other purposes.
1.

Short title
This Act may be cited as the “IRS Customer Service and Modernization Act of 2022”.
2.

Findings; sense of Congress
(a)

Findings
Congress finds the following:
(1)
The Internal Revenue Service is facing unprecedented challenges following the outbreak of the COVID–19 and the Federal response which included significant changes to the Internal Revenue Code.
(2)
Since that time, the Internal Revenue Service has been under tremendous strain with rapidly growing workloads and significant staffing challenges.
(3)
At the beginning of the 2021 tax season, the Internal Revenue Service still had approximately 11.7 million backlogged returns from tax year 2020, and it took the IRS until June of 2021 to get through its 2019 backlog.
(4)
As of December 2021, the Internal Revenue Service still had a backlog of approximately 6 million unprocessed individual tax returns.
(5)
Processing delays at the Internal Revenue Service have a disproportionately negative impact on low-income Americans.
(6)
In fiscal year 2021, the Internal Revenue Service received approximately 282 million phone calls, of which only 11 percent or about 32 million were actually answered by customer service representatives.
(b)

Sense of Congress
It is the sense of Congress that the American people deserve an Internal Revenue Service that is responsive, efficient, and precise in its actions, and the Internal Revenue Service must develop a corrective action plan to address key deficiencies.
3.

Corrective action plan required to address key deficiencies
(a)

In general
Not later than 60 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of the Treasury shall develop a written corrective active plan to achieve average return of tax processing times that do not exceed the average of such processing times for returns of tax relating to the 5-year period ending on December 31, 2019. Such corrective active plan shall include the following:
(1)
Quarterly goals and benchmarks to achieve such processing times not later than the beginning of the processing period for returns of tax relating to taxable years ending on or after December 31, 2023.
(2)
A list of technological upgrades that would improve processing times of returns of tax.
(3)
A list of human resource policy changes that would improve processing of returns of tax, including—
(A)
a list of ways to increase productivity of staff working remotely as the result of COVID–19, and
(B)
a strategy to improve recruitment and retention.
(4)
An estimate of the cost of maintaining and operating existing taxpayer information processing technology.
(5)
An estimate of the total annual cost of protecting the computer systems of the Internal Revenue Service from cyber intrusion.
(6)
An analysis on how much the Internal Revenue Service has paid in interest to taxpayers as a result of backlogs in processing returns of tax that were submitted after March 13, 2020.
(7)
A plan to address backlogs in the Error Resolution System to reduce the need for manual processing, including—
(A)
rapid identification of math errors and immediate notification to the taxpayer,
(B)
improvements to processing times for taxpayer correspondence, and
(C)
an analysis of options to improve taxpayer correspondence to include expanding taxpayer awareness and use of online accounts to send and receive secure correspondence.
(8)
An analysis of new Customer Relationship Management software options to improve taxpayer inquiry tracking.
(9)
An analysis of options to improve taxpayer access to in-person meetings with the Taxpayer Advocate Service and the Internal Revenue Service, particularly in areas with significant backlogs of requests for such meetings.
(10)
A strategy to prevent inaccurate correspondence to taxpayers and tax practitioners.
(b)

Publication and submission to Congress
The Secretary of the Treasury shall publish the corrective active plan required under subsection (a) on the website of the Internal Revenue Service and shall submit such corrective active plan to the Committees on Ways and Means, Appropriations, and Oversight and Reform of the House of Representatives and to the Committees on Finance and Appropriations of the Senate.
4.

Internal Revenue Service modernization of communications
Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of the Treasury shall improve communication with the public by—
(1)
expanding the capacity of the practitioner priority service to respond to certified public accountants acting on behalf of a client,
(2)
establishing a chat function on the website of the Internal Revenue Service on which a taxpayer can get a quick answer to a basic question that does not require the exchange of personally identifiable information, and
(3)
establishing an online scheduling tool to allow taxpayers to schedule virtual meetings, phone calls, and in-person meetings.