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Illinois U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood, R-Peoria, has introduced the
Electronic Filing and Payment Fairness Act.
LaHood notes that 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 was received a week later.
“If a taxpayer submits the same payment or return to the IRS
electronically on the due date, however, it is considered late
if the IRS receives or processes it the following day,” said
LaHood. “This disparity obviously makes zero sense.”
The measure would extend the “mailbox rule” to electronic
submissions and documents to the IRS.
LaHood said filing tax returns electronically should be
encouraged, and this measure would affect a large segment of tax
filers.
“This bill, which has a negligible cost, will protect the
roughly 90% of taxpayers already filing electronically from
unnecessary late fees and administrative headaches,” LaHood.
Illinois U.S. Reps. Bradley Schneider, D-Deerfield, Suzan
DelBene, D-Washington, Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pennsylvania, Jimmy
Panetta, D-California, and Randy Feenstra, R-Iowa, cosponsored
the bill.
The measure passed out of the U.S. House Ways and Means
Committee and is headed to the House floor for consideration.
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