Rockford Sun

Congressman Darin LaHood's Electronic Filing and Payment Fairness Act has passed out of the House. LaHood, who chairs the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Work and Welfare, expressed support for the bipartisan bill.

“This commonsense bill, which has been included in the National Taxpayer Advocate’s ‘Purple Book’ of Legislative Recommendations, would amend the tax code to apply the ‘mailbox rule’ to electronic submissions of payments and documents to the Internal Revenue Service," said Rep. LaHood. He explained, "Under current law, if a taxpayer physically mails a payment or tax return to the IRS that is postmarked on the due date, that payment or tax return is considered timely even if it is received a week later. If the taxpayer submits the same payment or return to the IRS electronically on the due date, however, it is considered late if the IRS receives and processes it the following day. This disparity punishes taxpayers electing to correspond with the IRS electronically, which should be the preferred method of communication this day and age."

LaHood emphasized the modernization efforts, aimed particularly at making the IRS more accessible for the 90% of taxpayers filing electronically.

Jason Smith, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman, also supported the legislation, stating, "It’s common sense that taxpayers who file electronically should be treated the same as taxpayers who use postmarked mail. Unfortunately, under current law, that is not always the case. Representative LaHood’s legislation, the Electronic Filing and Payment Fairness Act, is a big step forward to making our tax system fair for everyone. This bill will harmonize IRS deadline rules to provide equal treatment to all taxpayers, whether filing through mail or electronically, and help Americans avoid unnecessary penalties and fines.”

The bill aims to simplify tax filing and payment processes for families and small businesses by applying the "mailbox rule" to electronic submissions, which could reduce late fees and the administrative load for electronic filers.