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H.R. 5444: Taxpayer First Act

Apr 18, 2018 at 6:02 p.m. ET. On Passage of the Bill in the House.

This was a vote to pass H.R. 5444 (115th) in the House.

H.R. 5444 makes numerous changes to reorganize the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in an attempt to focus the agencies efforts more on taxpayer service. Specifically, the bill does the following:

  • Creates an independent appeals process to improve the dispute resolution process within the agency.
  • Requires the IRS to submit to Congress a comprehensive plan to improve its customer service strategy, based on best practices from the private sector.
  • Requires the IRS to maintain the IRS Free File Program that provides free individual income tax preparation and electronic filing services to the lowest 70 percent of taxpayers by adjusted gross income.
  • Ensures taxpayers have access to the same information as the IRS during the dispute resolution process, in an attempt to level the playing field.
  • Requires the IRS to submit to Congress a plan to redesign the structure of the agency to improve efficiency, enhance cyber security, and better meet the needs of taxpayers.
  • Ensures that the IRS sends notice to the actual taxpayer when conducting an audit before contacting friends, neighbors, and clients.
  • Restructures the IRS’s enforcement tools to ensures taxpayers do not have their assets seized without proper, timely, and fair notice.
  • Changes the head position at the IRS from a Commissioner to an Administrator.

Of particular note, this bill would simplify some taxpayers' access to case files. Under current law, a taxpayer must file a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request in order to obtain from the IRS the file of information on his or her case. The bill requires that the administrative case file referred to Independent Appeals be available to certain individual and small business taxpayers. Eligible taxpayers are individuals with adjusted gross income below $400,000 and entities with gross receipts below $5 million. Under the proposal, eligible taxpayers may review the non-privileged portions of materials developed by the IRS for its administrative case file not later than ten days prior to the first conference with Independent Appeals. In providing the materials, the IRS need not produce for the taxpayer the documents that were initially provided to the IRS by the taxpayer. In addition, the taxpayer may elect to waive the ten-day period and accept access to the materials on the date of the scheduled conference.

Source: Republican Policy Committee

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Totals

All Votes R D
Yea 100%
 
 
414
227
 
187
 
Nay 0%
 
 
0
0
 
0
 
Not Voting
 
 
15
9
 
6
 

Passed. Simple Majority Required. Source: house.gov.

Ideology Vote Chart

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Republican - Yea Democrat - Yea
Seat position based on our ideology score.

Cartogram Map

Each hexagon represents one congressional district. Dark shaded hexes are Yea votes.

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Notes: The Speaker’s Vote?
The Speaker of the House is not required to vote in “ordinary legislative proceedings, except when such vote would be decisive.” In practice, this means the Speaker of the House rarely votes and only does so when it is politically useful. When the Speaker declines to vote, he or she is simply omitted from the roll call by the House Clerk. (See House Rules, Rule I(7).)
“Aye” or “Yea”?

“Aye” and “Yea” mean the same thing, and so do “No” and “Nay”. Congress uses different words in different sorts of votes.

The U.S. Constitution says that bills should be decided on by the “yeas and nays” (Article I, Section 7). Congress takes this literally and uses “yea” and “nay” when voting on the final passage of bills.

All Senate votes use these words. But the House of Representatives uses “Aye” and “No” in other sorts of votes.

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Study Guide

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You can find answers to most of the questions below here on the vote page. For a guide to understanding the bill this vote was about, see here.

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