I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1983
To amend title 31, United States Code, to direct the Secretary of the
Treasury to regulate tax return preparers, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH10, 2025
Mr. C
OHENintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee
on Ways and Means
A BILL
To amend title 31, United States Code, to direct the Sec-
retary of the Treasury to regulate tax return preparers,
and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Tax Return Preparer 4
Accountability Act of 2025’’. 5
SEC. 2. REGULATION OF TAX RETURN PREPARERS. 6
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Subsection (a) of section 330 of 7
title 31, United States Code, is amended— 8
(1) by striking paragraph (1) and inserting the 9
following: 10
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‘‘(1) regulate— 1
‘‘(A) the practice of representatives of per-2
sons before the Department of the Treasury; 3
and 4
‘‘(B) the practice of tax return preparers; 5
and’’; and 6
(2) in paragraph (2)— 7
(A) by inserting ‘‘or a tax return preparer 8
to prepare tax returns’’ after ‘‘practice’’; 9
(B) by inserting ‘‘or tax return preparer’’ 10
before ‘‘demonstrate’’; and 11
(C) by inserting ‘‘or in preparing their tax 12
returns, claims for refund, or documents in con-13
nection with tax returns or claims for refund’’ 14
after ‘‘cases’’ in subparagraph (D). 15
(b) A
UTHORITYTOSANCTIONREGULATEDTAXRE-16
TURNPREPARERS.—Subsection (c) of section 330 of title 17
31, United States Code, is amended— 18
(1) by striking ‘‘before the Department’’; 19
(2) by inserting ‘‘or tax return preparer’’ after 20
‘‘representative’’ each place it appears; and 21
(3) in paragraph (4), by striking ‘‘misleads or 22
threatens’’ and all that follows and inserting ‘‘mis-23
leads or threatens— 24
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‘‘(A) any person being represented or any 1
prospective person being represented; or 2
‘‘(B) any person or prospective person 3
whose tax return, claim for refund, or document 4
in connection with a tax return or claim for re-5
fund, is being or may be prepared.’’. 6
(c) M
INIMUMCOMPETENCYSTANDARDS FOR TAX 7
R
ETURNPREPARERS.—Section 330 of title 31, United 8
States Code, is amended by adding at the end the fol-9
lowing new subsection: 10
‘‘(f) T
AXRETURNPREPARERS.— 11
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Any tax return preparer 12
shall demonstrate minimum competency standards 13
under this subsection by— 14
‘‘(A) obtaining an identifying number for 15
securing proper identification of such preparer 16
as described in section 6109(a)(4) of the Inter-17
nal Revenue Code of 1986; 18
‘‘(B) satisfying any examination and an-19
nual continuing education requirements as pre-20
scribed by the Secretary; and 21
‘‘(C) completing a background check ad-22
ministered by the Secretary. 23
‘‘(2) E
XEMPTION.—The Secretary shall exempt 24
tax return preparers who have been subject to com-25
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parable examination, continuing education require-1
ments, and background checks administered by the 2
Secretary or any comparable State licensing pro-3
gram. Such exemption shall extend directly to indi-4
viduals who are supervised by such preparers and 5
are not required to secure an identification number 6
under section 6109(a)(4).’’. 7
(d) T
AXRETURNPREPARERDEFINED.—Section 8
330 of title 31, United States Code, as amended by sub-9
section (c), is amended by adding at the end the following 10
new subsection: 11
‘‘(g) T
AXRETURNPREPARER.—For purposes of this 12
section— 13
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—The term ‘tax return pre-14
parer’ has the meaning given such term under sec-15
tion 7701(a)(36) of the Internal Revenue Code of 16
1986. 17
‘‘(2) T
AX RETURN.—The term ‘tax return’ has 18
the meaning given to the term ‘return’ under section 19
6696(e)(1) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986. 20
‘‘(3) C
LAIM FOR REFUND.—The term ‘claim for 21
refund’ has the meaning given such term under sec-22
tion 6696(e)(2) of such Code.’’. 23
(e) A
MENDMENTS WITHRESPECT TOIDENTIFYING 24
N
UMBER.— 25
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(1) IN GENERAL.—Section 6109(a) of the In-1
ternal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by striking 2
paragraph (4) and inserting the following: 3
‘‘(4) F
URNISHING IDENTIFYING NUMBER OF 4
TAX RETURN PREPARER .— 5
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Any return or claim 6
for refund prepared by a tax return preparer 7
shall bear such identifying number for securing 8
proper identification of such preparer, his em-9
ployer, or both, as may be prescribed. For pur-10
poses of this paragraph, the terms ‘return’ and 11
‘claim for refund’ have the respective meanings 12
given to such terms by section 6696(e). 13
‘‘(B) E
XCEPTION.—Subparagraph (A) 14
shall not apply with respect to the preparation 15
of any return or claim for refund by a tax re-16
turn preparer if— 17
‘‘(i) such return or claim is prepared 18
by such preparer while such preparer is 19
employed by an attorney, certified public 20
accountant, or enrolled agent firm, and 21
‘‘(ii) such preparer prepares such re-22
turn or claim under the supervision and di-23
rection of a tax return preparer who signs 24
such return or claim and is an attorney, 25
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certified public accountant, or enrolled 1
agent.’’. 2
(2) C
LARIFICATION OF RESCISSION AUTHOR -3
ITY.—Section 6109 of such Code is amended by in-4
serting after subsection (d) the following new sub-5
section: 6
‘‘(e) A
UTHORITYTORESCINDIDENTIFYINGNUM-7
BER OFTAXRETURNPREPARER.— 8
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary may rescind 9
an identifying number issued under subsection 10
(a)(4) if— 11
‘‘(A) after notice and opportunity for a 12
hearing, the preparer is shown to be incom-13
petent or disreputable (as such terms are used 14
in subsection (c) of section 330 of title 31, 15
United States Code); and 16
‘‘(B) rescinding the identifying number 17
would promote compliance with the require-18
ments of this title and effective tax administra-19
tion. 20
‘‘(2) R
ECORDS.—If an identifying number is re-21
scinded under paragraph (1), the Secretary shall 22
place in the file in the Office of the Director of Pro-23
fessional Responsibility the opinion of the Secretary 24
with respect to the determination, including— 25
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‘‘(A) a statement of the facts and cir-1
cumstances relating to the determination; and 2
‘‘(B) the reasons for the rescission.’’. 3
(3) E
FFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made 4
by this subsection shall apply to returns filed after 5
the date of the enactment of this Act. 6
SEC. 3. TECHNOLOGY UPDATES AT INTERNAL REVENUE 7
SERVICE. 8
(a) I
MPLEMENTATION OF AUTOMATEDFORMULATO 9
I
DENTIFYTAXPAYERS AT RISK OFECONOMICHARD-10
SHIP.—As soon as practicable, the Secretary of the Treas-11
ury (or the Secretary’s delegate), shall implement at the 12
Internal Revenue Service an algorithm that will enable the 13
Internal Revenue Service to— 14
(1) identify taxpayers at high risk of economic 15
hardship (as defined by the Secretary in regula-16
tions), 17
(2) ask questions of taxpayers who contact the 18
Internal Revenue Service regarding a balance due 19
for purposes of identifying those at risk of hardship, 20
(3) in the case of taxpayers at risk of economic 21
hardship who seek to enter into streamlined install-22
ment agreements online, to notify such taxpayers of 23
the resources available to them, 24
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(4) determine whether to exclude taxpayers’ 1
debts from automated collection treatments such as 2
the Federal Payment Levy Program, the private 3
debt collection program, and passport certification, 4
and 5
(5) rank cases for collection priority. 6
(b) S
ECURITYSTANDARDS FOR TAXSOFTWARE.— 7
The Secretary of the Treasury (or the Secretary’s dele-8
gate), shall— 9
(1) as soon as practicable, promulgate such reg-10
ulations and guidance as are necessary to prescribe 11
information security standards for all tax software 12
providers, and 13
(2) annually thereafter, review and update such 14
standards. 15
Æ
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