House Tax Writers Advance Tax Bills on Disaster Relief and Online Accounts

The House Ways and Means Committee unanimously approved five bipartisan tax bills on March 25, including legislation that would require the IRS to create more robust online taxpayer accounts.

The bills are the latest in a string of bipartisan tax administration bills that have advanced in the House this year. Several have a chance to be enacted, but Senate efforts to pass more sweeping tax administration legislation could complicate the outlook.

The five new bills passed on March 25 include: 

• H.R. 7971: The Taxpayer Experience Improvement Act would require the IRS to disclose call wait times on its website, implement callback technology, expand electronic access to refund information, and create online accounts with extensive return and taxpayer information.
• H.R. 7959: The IRS Whistleblower Program Improvement Act would clarify the judicial standard of review for whistleblower rewards, allow whistleblower anonymity before the Tax Court, require the IRS to pay interest on whistleblower payments, and require the IRS to publish an annual report of the top 10 tax avoidance schemes disclosed by whistleblowers.
• H.R. 5366: The Federal Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2025 would codify individuals’ ability to deduct up to $500 in personal casualty losses from a qualified disaster without regard to the 10% adjusted gross income floor and would exclude wildfire relief payments from income. 
• H.R. 2347: The Survivor Justice Tax Prevention Act would exclude compensatory damages for sexual assault from income.
• H.R. 3334: The Supporting Early-childhood Educators’ Deductions Act of 2025 would expand the above-the-line deduction for teacher expenses to include pre-K teachers.

The bills will now await House action along with three other tax bills passed by the Ways and Means Committee in December:

• H.R. 6506: The Taxpayer Due Process Enhancement Act would suspend the period of limitations for refund claims during disputes with the IRS so that taxpayers do not lose their right to pursue a refund while the issue is ongoing in another forum. Moreover, the bill would prevent the IRS from applying an overpayment from one period to another when the other period is being contested, so that disputes do not become legally moot due to an offset. 
• H.R. 6495: The Taxpayer Notification and Privacy Act would expand the information required to be provided in notifications to taxpayers when seeking information from third parties.
• H.R. 4242: The Innovate Less Lethal to De-Escalate Tax Modernization Act would exempt certain “less-than-lethal projectile devices” from firearms excise taxes.

In addition, five committee bills that have already passed the full House await Senate action:

• H.R. 5346: The Fair and Accountable IRS Reviews Act would require IRS examiners to obtain written approval from “the person to whom such individual reports” before “any written communication with respect to such penalty (including proposal of a penalty as an adjustment) is sent to the taxpayer.”
• H.R. 5349: The Tax Court Improvement Act would make a number of changes to Tax Court procedures, including expanding subpoena authority and clarifying that the Tax Court has jurisdiction over equitable tolling questions.
• H.R. 1152: The Electronic Filing and Payment Fairness Act would change the timeliness provisions around electronic filings so timeliness would be determined based on when an electronic payment or form was sent. 
• H.R. 1155: The Recovery of Stolen Checks Act would allow the IRS to issue replacement checks for lost tax refund payments as electronic payments. 
• H.R. 997: The National Taxpayer Advocate Enhancement Act of 2025 would give the National Taxpayer Advocate Service authority to hire direct counsel.

It is typically more difficult to pass tax legislation through the Senate than the House, but lawmakers have had some success using the unanimous consent process during this Congress. Three tax administration bills were enacted into law last year after clearing the Senate by unanimous consent:

• H.R. 517: The Filing Relief for Natural Disasters Act increases the mandatory filing and payment relief period for natural disasters under Section 7508A from 60 days to 120 days and gives the IRS authority to postpone deadlines for state-declared natural disasters.
• H.R. 998: The Internal Revenue Service Math and Taxpayer Help Act imposes new restrictions on the IRS’s ability to use math error authority to make adjustments without using the regular deficiency procedures (see our full write-up, "Math Error Legislation Heads to President’s Desk" for more information).
• H.R 1491: The Disaster Related Extension of Deadlines Act provides that the period for which tax return filing deadlines are postponed under existing disaster relief in Section 7508A are treated as an extension of the statute of limitations for filing a refund claim under Section 6511(b)(2)(A) and clarifies that the last day prescribed for payment after an assessment under Section 6303 includes any period of time subject to relief under Section 7508A.

All pending bills (apart from H.R. 4242) enjoy overwhelming bipartisan support, so enactment this year is possible. But Senate tax writers could also reject the House’s piecemeal approach and instead push their own broader legislation. Senate Finance Chairman Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, and Ranking Minority Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., recently released an updated version of their bipartisan tax administration bill, which shares provisions with some of the House bills (See Senate Tax Writers Introduce New Tax Administration Bill for more information).