Lewis introduces taxpayer protections bill

Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) on Tuesday introduced legislation providing protections to taxpayers. 

"This legislation helps taxpayers who are struggling in this economy by making it easier to enter into payment arrangements with the IRS," Lewis said in prepared remarks. "It also helps low-income taxpayers by improving IRS services available to them and helps small businesses and nonprofit organizations by relaxing the record keeping requirements for employer-provided cell phones." 

Lewis chairs the Ways and Means oversight subcommittee, a group that supervises the IRS. 

Aside from the provisions mentioned by Lewis, the bill allows the Treasury Secretary to exempt, for religious reasons, certain tax return preparers from the electronic filing mandate; and requires the IRS to pay interest on refunds related to individual income tax returns that are filed electronically for refunds not paid within 30 days. 

It also repeals the partial payment requirement on submitting an offer-in-compromise and provides several protections for low-income taxpayers, including an Earned Income Tax Credit outreach.   

Offsets for the bill are expanding bad check penalties to electronic payments and increasing information reporting penalties.

A summary of the bill can be found on the House Ways and Means website.