(The Center Square) – With Tax Day about a month away, an Illinois congressman is trying to simplify the tax filing process.
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.
