Holding the IRS accountable to taxpayers

Every year, April 15 — and March 1 for our producers — marks a dreaded deadline for American families, farmers and small businesses. It’s the day that the federal government extracts as much money as possible from the American people.

Paying taxes is already miserable enough; filing them should not be frustrating, overly complicated and time-consuming. Yet, that remains the case.

On Feb. 12, the U.S. House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee held a full committee markup where two of my bills — and a third that I helped lead — to insulate the Internal Revenue Service from partisan politics and make the IRS more accountable to Iowa taxpayers passed the full committee.

According to the IRS, it is estimated that taxpayers spend approximately 13 hours and about $270 just to organize, prepare and file their annual tax returns. For small businesses, those projections skyrocket to 82 hours and roughly $2,900 to comply with tax obligations.

In total, the National Taxpayers Union found that Americans spend about $104 billion and over 6.5 billion hours on compliance, regulatory hurdles, and filing. The opportunity cost of preparing, checking, and filing taxers also exceeds $260 billion — causing stress and headaches for families and stripping valuable time from small businesses better spent on serving their customers, support their employees and keeping their doors open.

Filing taxes is time-consuming, and Iowa workers and small businesses should not have to spend hours and hours doing so when they’re trying to provide for their families. There are ways that we can simplify this process.

That’s why, alongside my friend Rep. Darin LaHood (R-Illinois), I helped introduce the Tax Administration Simplification Act, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives and would simplify the tax filing and payment processes for taxpayers and small businesses.

This legislation would apply the mailbox rule to electronically submitted documents and tax payments to the IRS, permit newly-formed small businesses to elect to be treated as an S Corporation — a designation that allows business income and losses to be taxed on personal tax returns — on their first tax filing, and revise the estimated tax payment deadlines to fall on quarterly intervals instead of the current irregular payment schedule.

These reforms seek to streamline the tax-filing process, help eliminate hurdles for small businesses and give families more flexibility when submitting their taxes without facing unnecessary and costly penalties.

A second bill that passed the House was the Internal Revenue Service Math and Taxpayer Help (IRS MATH) Act, which I introduced.

If the IRS finds a mistake on a tax return, this agency should be required to clearly communicate that error to the taxpayer and explain why a tax refund is higher or lower than expected.

However, that has never been the case, leaving millions of taxpayers needlessly confused about how to rectify an issue with the IRS.

The IRS MATH Act ensures that the IRS clearly spells out errors on tax forms and helps taxpayers not only understand the mistake but also challenge it if they see fit.

Filing taxes is already burdensome and time-consuming. We can improve customer service by introducing open and transparent communication between the IRS and the taxpayer when a tax error is identified.

Finally, the third bill that passed the House of Representatives was the National Taxpayer Advocate Enhancement Act, which I led to clarify that it is within the purview of the National Taxpayer Advocate to hire attorneys that specifically report to her and support her efforts to serve taxpayers and work with caseworkers.

Since 2015, the IRS has prohibited the National Taxpayer Advocate from hiring legal counsel, which undermines her ability to effectively serve taxpayers and responsibly work with IRS caseworkers.

American taxpayers expect and deserve the best customer service and case outcomes when filing their federal taxes.

By clarifying that the National Taxpayer Advocate can hire her own attorneys to support her work on behalf of taxpayers, American families will benefit from fewer headaches when dealing with the IRS and a more accountable government.

For decades, the tax filing process has become a jumbled mess that discourages families from filing on their own behalf.

As a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, I will continue to work to simplify tax filing and push for the full reauthorization of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act so that our families, farmers, workers, and small businesses can keep more of their hard-earned money.

This op-ed was originally published in the Northwest Iowa Review on April 8, 2025.