House Passes IRS Upgrade Bill That Senate Could Quickly Approve

The House approved legislation April 9 that would give the IRS more ability to combat cyber crime as well as redesign the taxpayer appeals process.

The bill (H.R. 1957) would create an independent appeals office within the IRS and prohibit the agency from using private debt collectors to recover unpaid liabilities from low-income taxpayers. It would also require the IRS to come up with a new customer service strategy.

It would bolster the agency’s cyber security and fraud prevention efforts by allowing the IRS to boost salaries for key information technology employees and create a single point of ...