[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 68 (Thursday, April 25, 2019)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E485]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          REMARKS ON H.R. 1957, THE TAXPAYER FIRST ACT OF 2019

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                           HON. KATIE PORTER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 25, 2019

  Ms. PORTER. Madam Speaker, while there are many beneficial provisions 
in H.R. 1957, Section 1102 should be stripped from the legislation. 
This section would prohibit the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) from 
ever establishing a free file system for taxpayers by codifying an 
existing contract between the IRS and private taxpayer preparation 
software companies (e.g. TurboTax, H&R Block, Intuit).
  The National Consumer Law Center has previously written an opposition 
letter on this provision in the bill. Such a free filing system could 
save American taxpayers billions of dollars per year otherwise spent on 
taxpayer preparation services.
  While individuals earning less than $66,000 are currently eligible 
for free federal filing via private software companies due to the 
contract with the IRS, only 3 percent of such individuals take 
advantage of free filing, and millions more households outside the very 
modest income limit could benefit from an IRS-built system.
  An IRS free file system could also have the benefit of ending a 
current, predatory practice: low-income taxpayers are upsold by 
taxpayer preparation services into costly add-on products like refund 
anticipation loans, which are essentially payday loans backed by future 
tax refunds.
  Finally, even if the IRS does not have the capacity to build their 
own free file system, H.R. 1957 would preclude renegotiation of the 
current contract with private software developers in order to get 
better terms for taxpayers in a future, Democratically-controlled IRS.

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