Taxpayer Experience Improvement Act Amendment

N S AMENDMENT IN THEOATURE OF A NUBSTITUTE H.R. 7971 TO M. S M FFERED BYRMITH OF ISSOURI

Strike all after the enacting clause and insert the following:

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; ETC. 1

.--This Act may be cited as the 2(a) STHORTITLE ''Taxpayer Experience Improvement Act''. 3 .--For purposes of 4(b) RSEFERENCES TO ECRETARY this Act, the term ''Secretary'' means the Secretary of the 5 Treasury or the Secretary's delegate. 6 .--The table of contents of 7(c) TCABLE OFONTENTS this Act is as follows: 8

Sec. 1. Short title; etc. Sec. 2. Establishment of dashboard to inform taxpayers of backlogs and wait times. Sec. 3. Expansion of electronic access to information about returns and re- funds. Sec. 4. Expansion of callback technology. Sec. 5. Expansion of online accounts.

SEC. 2. ESTABLISHMENT OF DASHBOARD TO INFORM TAX-9 PAYERS OF BACKLOGS AND WAIT TIMES. 10

.--The Secretary shall require the 11(a) IGENERAL Internal Revenue Service to provide in real time on its 12 public website, to the extent practical, the following: 13

(1) Separately with respect to each applicable 1 phone number extension-- 2 (A) the number of callers connected to 3 speak directly with a representative of the In-4 ternal Revenue Service, 5 (B) the number of callers connected to 6 speak with an automated system, 7 (C) the number of callers who are waiting 8 to be connected to speak directly with a rep-9 resentative of the Internal Revenue Service or 10 an automated system, 11 (D) the longest amount of time that any 12 caller has been waiting to be connected to speak 13 directly with a representative of the Internal 14 Revenue Service, and 15 (E) whether callback service is currently 16 available, and if not, when such service is 17 scheduled to be available. 18 (2) An application or tool embedded on the 19 website which-- 20 (A) displays all of the information de-21 scribed in paragraph (1), and 22 (B) estimates the approximate wait time to 23 speak directly with a representative of the In-24 ternal Revenue Service. 25

(3) An application programming interface which 1 allows any person to access the information de-2 scribed in paragraph (1) using automation and to 3 create an application or tool embedded on a website 4 to display such information. 5 (4) For each applicable phone number exten-6 sion, a summary of the information described in 7 paragraph (1) with respect to the prior month, in-8 cluding-- 9 (A) the average and median length of calls, 10 (B) the average and median amount of 11 time that callers were speaking directly with a 12 representative of the Internal Revenue Service, 13 (C) the number and percent of calls that 14 were directed to an automated system, 15 (D) the number and percent of calls that 16 were disconnected or terminated by the Internal 17 Revenue Service, 18 (E) the number of callers who were trans-19 ferred to another applicable phone number ex-20 tension after the call was initially answered by 21 a representative of the Internal Revenue Serv-22 ice, 23

(F) the average and median amount of 1 time that callers described in subparagraph (E) 2 were on hold following the transfer, and 3 (G) the number and percent of callers who 4 indicated that they received the answers or 5 service for which they were contacting the In-6 ternal Revenue Service. 7 .--The Sec-8(b) D CRETECTION OF AUTOMATED DALLS retary shall require the Internal Revenue Service to use 9 technology to detect and screen out automated calls. 10 .--For any 11(c) INFORMATION EGARDING ELAYS week in which there was a significant delay with respect 12 to any applicable item (referred to in this subsection as 13 an ''applicable week''), the Secretary shall require the In-14 ternal Revenue Service to provide on its public website, 15 during the week subsequent to the applicable week, infor-16 mation with respect to each such applicable item regarding 17 the earliest date on which any such applicable items that 18 were processed during the applicable week were received 19 by the Internal Revenue Service. 20 .--For purposes of this section-- 21(d) DEFINITIONS .--The term ''applicable 22(1) APPLICABLE ITEM item'' means each category of tax return, claim, 23 statement, or other document filed with the Internal 24 Revenue Service. 25

-1(2) APPLICABLE PHONE NUMBER EXTEN .--The term ''applicable phone number exten-2SION sion'' means any extension or application which may 3 be reached by calling a phone number which is listed 4 by the Internal Revenue Service on any website, 5 publication, form, or instruction which is available to 6 the public and-- 7 (A) operated by the Internal Revenue Serv-8 ice accounts management function, 9 (B) operated by the Internal Revenue 10 Service automated collection function, 11 (C) managed by the Internal Revenue 12 Service Joint Operations Center, 13 (D) managed and staffed by a contractor 14 on behalf of the Internal Revenue Service, or 15 (E) received not less than 200,000 calls 16 during the preceding calendar year. 17 .--The term ''signifi-18(3) SIGNIFICANT DELAY cant delay'' means, in the case of any applicable 19 item for any week, the failure to process all of such 20 applicable items which were received by the Internal 21 Revenue Service at least 21 days before the first day 22 of the week. 23

.--The requirements of this sec-1(e) EDFFECTIVEATE tion shall apply to periods beginning after the date which 2 is 12 months after the date of enactment of this Act. 3

SEC. 3. EXPANSION OF ELECTRONIC ACCESS TO INFORMA-4 TION ABOUT RETURNS AND REFUNDS. 5

Not later than January 1 of the first calendar year 6 beginning more than 12 months after the date of enact-7 ment of this Act, through a website and mobile applica-8 tion, the Secretary shall provide individualized, specific, 9 and up-to-date information to taxpayers regarding their 10 tax returns and amended returns, including information 11 with respect to whether the Internal Revenue Service 12 has-- 13 (1) received such return and entered such re-14 turn into their systems, 15 (2) completed processing such return, includ-16 ing-- 17 (A) the date on which the Internal Rev-18 enue Service issued any refund of any overpay-19 ment of tax, 20 (B) the estimated date on which the tax-21 payer can expect to receive such refund, and 22 (C)(i) if the refund will be issued by elec-23 tronic fund transfer, the financial account to 24

which such refund will be deposited, includ-1 ing-- 2 (I) the partial or full account number 3 for such account, and 4 (II) the name and routing number of 5 the financial institution, or 6 (ii) if the refund will be issued by paper 7 check, the address to which the check will be 8 mailed, or 9 (3) suspended processing such return, includ-10 ing-- 11 (A) the reason for the suspension, and 12 (B) in the case of any information which 13 was requested by the Internal Revenue Serv-14 ice-- 15 (i) the information requested, 16 (ii) the form and manner for submis-17 sion of such information, and 18 (iii) the date on which such informa-19 tion is due to be submitted to the Internal 20 Revenue Service. 21

SEC. 4. EXPANSION OF CALLBACK TECHNOLOGY. 22

It is the sense of Congress that-- 23

(1) taxpayers contacting the Internal Revenue 1 Service should have the option to receive a callback, 2 and 3 (2) not later than calendar year 2028, the In-4 ternal Revenue Service should provide any taxpayer 5 (including any taxpayer residing outside of the 6 United States) the option to receive a callback for 7 any call made by the taxpayer to an applicable 8 phone number extension (as defined in section 9 2(d)(2) of this Act) which has not been answered 10 within 5 minutes. 11

SEC. 5. EXPANSION OF ONLINE ACCOUNTS. 12

.--Not later than January 1 of the 13(a) IGNENERAL first calendar year beginning more than 18 months after 14 the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall 15 make available a website or mobile application which al-16 lows any taxpayer (including any taxpayer residing outside 17 of the United States) the ability to-- 18 (1) in a manner consistent with any applicable 19 limitations under section 6103 of the Internal Rev-20 enue Code of 1986, view any return (as defined in 21 section 6103(b)(1) of the Internal Revenue Code of 22 1986), document, notice, or letter (with the excep-23 tion of any educational item which has no legal ef-24

fect) which, during the applicable period (as defined 1 in subsection (d)), has been-- 2 (A) sent by the Internal Revenue Service 3 to such taxpayer, or 4 (B) filed with (or, in the case of any docu-5 ment not required to be filed, sent to) the In-6 ternal Revenue Service-- 7 (i) by such taxpayer, 8 (ii) by a person described in sub-9 section (c) of section 6103 of the Internal 10 Revenue Code of 1986 with respect to such 11 taxpayer, or 12 (iii) with respect to such taxpayer in 13 a manner described in subsection (e) of 14 such section, 15 (2) with respect to any document, notice, or let-16 ter sent to such taxpayer by the Internal Revenue 17 Service, respond to such document, notice, or letter 18 by uploading or otherwise transmitting the tax-19 payer's response through the website or mobile ap-20 plication, and 21 (3) in the case of-- 22 (A) any representative of such taxpayer 23 who is authorized to practice before the Depart-24

ment of the Treasury pursuant to section 330 1 of title 31, United States Code, 2 (B) any tax return preparer (as defined in 3 section 7701(a)(36) of the Internal Revenue 4 Code of 1986) with an identifying number (as 5 described in section 6109(a)(4) of such Code), 6 or 7 (C) any qualified reporting agent, 8 permit such representative, preparer, or agent, to 9 the extent authorized by the taxpayer, to access the 10 information described in paragraph (1) or transmit 11 any information described in paragraph (2). 12 .--With respect to 13(b) AVAILABILITY FOR IEWING any return, document, notice, or letter described in para-14 graph (1) of subsection (a), such return, document, notice, 15 or letter shall be made available for viewing by the tax-16 payer (or, pursuant to paragraph (3) of such subsection, 17 any representative, tax return preparer, or qualified re-18 porting agent authorized by the taxpayer) as soon as is 19 practicable and within such periods as are established pur-20 suant to regulations prescribed by the Secretary. 21 -22(c) A RMCCESS TO VULTIPLE ACCOUNTS BY AEP .--For purposes of 23 , P , RESENTATIVE REPARER OR GENT subsection (a)(3), the website or mobile application shall 24 allow a representative, tax return preparer, or qualified 25

reporting agent to be able to access information for mul-1 tiple taxpayers who have provided permission under such 2 subsection without any requirement to individually and 3 separately access the account of each such taxpayer. 4 .-- 5 (d) A PPLICABLE ERIOD .--Subject to paragraph (2), 6 (1) I N GENERAL for purposes of subsection (a)(1), the term ''applica-7 ble period'' means the preceding 6-year period. 8 .--The term 9 (2) P ROSPECTIVE APPLICATION ''applicable period'' shall not include any years end-10 ing before the date of enactment of this Act. 11 .-- 12 (e) Q RUALIFIED PEPORTING AGENT .--For purposes of this section, 13 (1) I N GENERAL the term ''qualified reporting agent'' means a per-14 son-- 15 (A) which is properly authorized as an 16 agent to sign and file employment tax returns, 17 make related payments and deposits, and per-18 form such other acts on behalf of a taxpayer 19 under procedures set forth by the Secretary, 20 (B) which has met such requirements as 21 may be established by the Secretary, and 22 (C) for which authorization has not been 23 revoked or suspended by the Secretary pursuant 24 to procedures established by the Secretary. 25

.--For purposes 1(2) ERMPLOYMENT TAX RETURN of paragraph (1)(A), the term ''employment tax re-2 turn'' means-- 3 (A) any return required to be filed by an 4 employer to report the obligations of the em-5 ployer and its employees under section 3101, 6 3111, 3301, or 3402 of the Internal Revenue 7 Code of 1986, and 8 (B) such other returns as designated by 9 the Secretary. 10 11(f) PUDREVENTINGNAUTHORIZEDISCLOSURE OF 12IPDETURNNFORMATION BYERSONSESIGNATED BY .--Not later than January 1 of the first cal-13TAXPAYERS endar year beginning more than 18 months after the date 14 of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall-- 15 (1) establish a program to investigate and ad-16 dress-- 17 (A) any access, use, or disclosure of return 18 information (as defined in section 6103(b) of 19 the Internal Revenue Code of 1986) by any per-20 son which is in excess of the authorization per-21 mitted to such person pursuant to subsection 22 (a)(3), and 23 (B) any related misconduct, and 24

(2) annually publish, on the public website of 1 the Internal Revenue Service, the actions undertaken 2 pursuant to the program described in paragraph (1), 3 such as the number of complaints investigated, the 4 number of persons whose access was revoked, and 5 other relevant statistical data. 6 .--For purposes of subsection (a), 7(g) F GOCUS ROUPS prior to the date that the website or mobile application 8 described in such subsection is made available, the Sec-9 retary shall conduct focus groups with taxpayers and tax 10 professionals to ensure that any amounts appropriated or 11 otherwise made available for such purposes are expended 12 in an appropriate manner. 13