S. 157Senate115th Congress (2017-2019)In Committee

Seniors' Tax Simplification Act of 2017

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Updated April 15, 2026 at 11:47 AM UTC

The Seniors' Tax Simplification Act of 2017 creates a special, easy‑to‑use tax return form (Form 1040SR) for people age 65 and older. The form is meant to be similar to the existing simple Form 1040EZ but can be used by seniors no matter how much income they earn, including Social Security, retirement payouts, interest, dividends, and capital gains. It applies to all tax years that start after the law takes effect.

Key Provisions

The Treasury must create a new tax return form called Form 1040SR for individuals who are 65 or older at the end of the tax year.
Form 1040SR is to be designed to look as much as possible like the simple Form 1040EZ.
Seniors can use the form regardless of how much income they have, and it may include Social Security benefits, retirement‑plan distributions, annuities, interest, dividends, and capital gains or losses.
The form becomes available for any tax year that begins after the law is enacted.

Legislative Activity

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1 earlier action

SenateIntro Referral Latest Action

Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.

Finance Committee

January 17, 2017

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SenateIntro Referral

Introduced in Senate

January 17, 2017

SenateIntro Referral

Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.

Finance Committee

January 17, 2017

Bill Text

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Introduced in SenateIssued January 17, 2017

115th CONGRESS

1st Session

S. 157

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

January 17, 2017

Mr. Rubio (for himself, Mr. Nelson, and Mr. Lee) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance

A BILL

To allow seniors to file their Federal income tax on a new Form 1040SR.

Short title

This Act may be cited as the Seniors’ Tax Simplification Act of 2017.

Form 1040SR for seniors

(a)

In general

The Secretary of the Treasury (or the Secretary’s delegate) shall make available a form, to be known as Form 1040SR, for use by individuals to file the return of tax imposed by chapter 1 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986. Such form shall be as similar as practicable to Form 1040EZ, except that—

(1)

the form shall be available to individuals who have attained age 65 as of the close of the taxable year,

(2)

the form may be used even if income for the taxable year includes—

(A)

social security benefits (as defined in section 86(d) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986),

(B)

distributions from qualified retirement plans (as defined in section 4974(c) of such Code), annuities or other such deferred payment arrangements,

(C)

interest and dividends, or

(D)

capital gains and losses taken into account in determining adjusted net capital gain (as defined in section 1(h)(3) of such Code), and

(3)

the form shall be available without regard to the amount of any item of taxable income or the total amount of taxable income for the taxable year.

(b)

Effective date

The form required by subsection (a) shall be made available for taxable years beginning after the date of the enactment of this Act.