H.R. 7971House119th Congress (2025-2027)Passed House

Taxpayer Experience Improvement Act

AI-Generated Summary

Updated May 1, 2026 at 6:52 AM UTC

The Taxpayer Experience Improvement Act aims to modernize the IRS by giving taxpayers clearer, real‑time information about service delays and their own tax filings. It creates online tools that show call‑center wait times, return and refund status, and lets taxpayers manage their accounts digitally. The bill affects all individual and business taxpayers, as well as tax professionals who act on their behalf.

Key Provisions

The IRS must post a public dashboard showing real‑time call‑center statistics (number of callers, wait times, longest wait, callback availability) for each major phone extension, plus a tool that estimates wait times and an API for developers.
Taxpayers will receive up‑to‑date electronic details about their returns and refunds—including receipt, processing status, refund amount, payment method, and any required additional information—through a website and mobile app.
By 2028, the IRS must offer a callback option for any call that isn’t answered within five minutes, available to all taxpayers, including those abroad.
A secure online portal (website or app) will let taxpayers view past returns, notices, and letters, respond to IRS communications, and grant authorized representatives, preparers, or qualified agents access to multiple client accounts.
The Treasury must establish a program to investigate and report unauthorized access or disclosure of tax return information, publishing annual statistics on the IRS website.

Legislative Activity

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12 earlier actions

SenateIntro Referral Latest Action

Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.

Finance Committee

April 28, 2026

View full timeline

HouseIntro Referral

Introduced in House

March 18, 2026

HouseIntro Referral

Referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means.

Ways and Means Committee

March 18, 2026

HouseCommittee

Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held

Ways and Means Committee

March 25, 2026

HouseCommittee

Ordered to be Reported in the Nature of a Substitute by the Yeas and Nays: 43 - 0.

Ways and Means Committee

March 25, 2026

HouseCommittee

Reported (Amended) by the Committee on Ways and Means. H. Rept. 119-607.

Ways and Means Committee

April 9, 2026

HouseCalendars

Placed on the Union Calendar, Calendar No. 527.

April 9, 2026

HouseFloor

Mr. Smith (MO) moved to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended.

April 27, 2026 • 3:22 PM

HouseFloor

Considered under suspension of the rules. (consideration: CR H3101-3104)

April 27, 2026 • 3:22 PM

HouseFloor

DEBATE - The House proceeded with forty minutes of debate on H.R. 7971.

April 27, 2026 • 3:22 PM

HouseFloor

Passed/agreed to in House: On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended Agreed to by voice vote. (text: CR H3102-3103)

April 27, 2026 • 3:32 PM

HouseFloor

On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended Agreed to by voice vote. (text: CR H3102-3103)

April 27, 2026 • 3:32 PM

HouseFloor

Motion to reconsider laid on the table Agreed to without objection.

April 27, 2026 • 3:32 PM

SenateIntro Referral

Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.

Finance Committee

April 28, 2026

Floor Debate

3 members

What members said about H.R. 7971 on the floor

2 Republicans1 Democrat

Rep. Donald S. Beyer, Jr.D-VA-8 · Apr 27, 2026

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, firstly, I thank my friend and colleague from Arizona (Mr. Schweikert) for his leadership on the Taxpayer Experience Improvement…

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, firstly, I thank my friend and colleague from Arizona (Mr. Schweikert) for his leadership on the Taxpayer Experience Improvement Act, and I am proud to support him on this.

The IRS has made great strides since the pandemic to improve customer service for taxpayers, contributing to a successful filing season last year. The agency was able to process more than 165 million income tax returns and deliver refunds to 104 million taxpayers, the overwhelming majority on time and with no issues.

This is in large part thanks to the funds provided to the IRS through the Inflation Reduction Act, which reversed decades of underinvestment in the agency.

However, even during what was a relatively smooth filing season, millions of taxpayers experienced delays receiving their refunds or difficulties communicating with the IRS due to issues on the agency's side.

It is hard to overstate how disruptive delayed refunds and unresolved notices can be for taxpayers. Families structure their annual budgets around the timely arrival of the refund checks, and a lengthy delay can throw their budget into chaos, particularly if the taxpayers aren't able to find out when they can expect to receive a check.

Similarly, a notice from the IRS to the taxpayer can cause enormous confusion or anxiety, especially when an individual is unable to get in touch with the agency quickly enough to answer their questions and address unresolved issues.

While this bill wouldn't reverse the recent ill-advised staffing and funding cuts pushed by this administration that are undermining the progress we made with the IRA, it will go a long way toward alleviating the harm to taxpayers.

The provisions in this bill aim to reduce the long-term demands on the agency by increasing the level of information available to taxpayers online and facilitating plans to digitize tax returns and correspondence.

It would also require the IRS to provide personalized electronic updates to taxpayers regarding the status of their returns and refunds, which should reduce the agency's incoming call volume.

Additionally, it would push the agency to implement customer callback technology and add a real-time service dashboard to its website to display call volumes, wait times, and promote the availability of its callback services. All these add up to an improved taxpayer experience and a more efficient IRS.

I greatly appreciate Mr. Schweikert's efforts with this bill to improve the IRS, and I hope that we can build on our success here and give the agency the resources it needs to provide the stellar customer service the American people deserve.

Mr. Speaker, I strongly support this measure. I urge a ``yes'' vote, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

The American people deserve a first-rate customer experience when they interact with the IRS. This legislation will help the agency reach that goal.

The IRS has been under tremendous pressure to do more with less in recent years, and based on the success of last year's filing season, it has proven it can rise to the challenge.

This bill will focus the agency's efforts on providing timely information to taxpayers, speed the digitization of forms and correspondence, and implement other resource- and time-saving measures. These provisions will take some of the load off of the IRS, its limited resources, and overworked staff, all while improving the experience for the taxpayers.

I greatly appreciate the bipartisan support for this bill and the leadership of tireless and annoying Congressman Schweikert. I hope that the success of this initiative will lead to more bipartisanship on tax administration going forward, and I look forward to working with my colleagues across the aisle to further improve the IRS.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote for the bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Rep. Jason SmithR-MO-8 · Apr 27, 2026

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 7971) to provide for modernization and technological improvements of services provided by the Internal Revenue Service, as amended.…

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 7971) to provide for modernization and technological improvements of services provided by the Internal Revenue Service, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and submit extraneous material on this bill under consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 7971, the Taxpayer Experience Improvement Act, bipartisan legislation introduced by Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee chair, Representative Schweikert, and Representative Don Beyer.

In 2023, the Government Accountability Office found that roughly one- third of IRS information technology applications and over 20 percent of agency IT software were anywhere from 25 to 64 years old. That means some of the systems in place at the IRS today were in operation before the Apollo 11 crew landed on the Moon.

This bill responds to that reality by imposing much-needed transparency on the IRS and requiring the agency to be more accessible for taxpayers, including folks who are seeking information about the status of their tax refunds or data on how the agency is performing when it comes to responding to taxpayers.

Our Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Schweikert has been a leading voice in Congress on deploying new technology to bring government into the modern era, and I appreciate his leadership on this issue.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Schweikert), the sponsor of this legislation, who as our Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee chairman is a tireless advocate for embracing new technology to improve services at the IRS.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, it is disappointing, though sadly not surprising, that we have to legislate to modernize an agency like the IRS so that its operations are more user-friendly to the American taxpayer, but that is the reality that we are facing.

The Taxpayer Experience Improvement Act pushes the IRS to be an agency more worthy of the taxpayers it serves and more responsive to their needs, whether it is tracking a tax refund, receiving a call back from the agency, or making a payment.

Mr. Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to support this legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Rep. David SchweikertR-AZ-1 · Apr 27, 2026

Mr. Speaker, I ask the chairman whether it is tireless or annoying. It is one or the other. Look, I have an absolute fixation, and I have got to thank my Democratic colleague and a number of the team…

Bill Text

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Referred in SenateIssued April 28, 2026

IIB

119th CONGRESS

2d Session

H. R. 7971

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

April 28, 2026

Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance

AN ACT

To provide for modernization and technological improvements of services provided by the Internal Revenue Service.

Short title; etc

(a)

Short title

This Act may be cited as the Taxpayer Experience Improvement Act.

(b)

References to Secretary

For purposes of this Act, the term Secretary means the Secretary of the Treasury or the Secretary’s delegate.

(c)

Table of contents

The table of contents of this Act is as follows:

Sec. 1. Short title; etc.

Sec. 2. Establishment of dashboard to inform taxpayers of backlogs and wait times.

Sec. 3. Expansion of electronic access to information about returns and refunds.

Sec. 4. Expansion of callback technology.

Sec. 5. Expansion of online accounts.

Establishment of dashboard to inform taxpayers of backlogs and wait times

(a)

In general

The Secretary shall require the Internal Revenue Service to provide in real time on its public website, to the extent practical, the following:

(1)

Separately with respect to each applicable phone number extension—

(A)

the number of callers connected to speak directly with a representative of the Internal Revenue Service,

(B)

the number of callers connected to speak with an automated system,

(C)

the number of callers who are waiting to be connected to speak directly with a representative of the Internal Revenue Service or an automated system,

(D)

the longest amount of time that any caller has been waiting to be connected to speak directly with a representative of the Internal Revenue Service, and

(E)

whether callback service is currently available, and if not, when such service is scheduled to be available.

(2)

An application or tool embedded on the website which—

(A)

displays all of the information described in paragraph (1), and

(B)

estimates the approximate wait time to speak directly with a representative of the Internal Revenue Service.

(3)

An application programming interface which allows any person to access the information described in paragraph (1) using automation and to create an application or tool embedded on a website to display such information.

(4)

For each applicable phone number extension, a summary of the information described in paragraph (1) with respect to the prior month, including—

(A)

the average and median length of calls,

(B)

the average and median amount of time that callers were speaking directly with a representative of the Internal Revenue Service,

(C)

the number and percent of calls that were directed to an automated system,

(D)

the number and percent of calls that were disconnected or terminated by the Internal Revenue Service,

(E)

the number of callers who were transferred to another applicable phone number extension after the call was initially answered by a representative of the Internal Revenue Service,

(F)

the average and median amount of time that callers described in subparagraph (E) were on hold following the transfer, and

(G)

the number and percent of callers who indicated that they received the answers or service for which they were contacting the Internal Revenue Service.

(b)

Detection of automated calls

The Secretary shall require the Internal Revenue Service to use technology to detect and screen out automated calls.

(c)

Information regarding delays

For any week in which there was a significant delay with respect to any applicable item (referred to in this subsection as an applicable week), the Secretary shall require the Internal Revenue Service to provide on its public website, during the week subsequent to the applicable week, information with respect to each such applicable item regarding the earliest date on which any such applicable items that were processed during the applicable week were received by the Internal Revenue Service.

(d)

Definitions

For purposes of this section—

(1)

Applicable item

The term applicable item means each category of tax return, claim, statement, or other document filed with the Internal Revenue Service.

(2)

Applicable phone number extension

The term applicable phone number extension means any extension or application which may be reached by calling a phone number which is listed by the Internal Revenue Service on any website, publication, form, or instruction which is available to the public and—

(A)

operated by the Internal Revenue Service accounts management function,

(B)

operated by the Internal Revenue Service automated collection function,

(C)

managed by the Internal Revenue Service Joint Operations Center,

(D)

managed and staffed by a contractor on behalf of the Internal Revenue Service, or

(E)

received not less than 200,000 calls during the preceding calendar year.

(3)

Significant delay

The term significant delay means, in the case of any applicable item for any week, the failure to process all of such applicable items which were received by the Internal Revenue Service at least 21 days before the first day of the week.

(e)

Effective date

The requirements of this section shall apply to periods beginning after the date which is 12 months after the date of enactment of this Act.

Expansion of electronic access to information about returns and refunds

Not later than January 1 of the first calendar year beginning more than 12 months after the date of enactment of this Act, through a website and mobile application, the Secretary shall provide individualized, specific, and up-to-date information to taxpayers regarding their tax returns and amended returns, including information with respect to whether the Internal Revenue Service has—

(1)

received such return and entered such return into their systems,

(2)

completed processing such return, including—

(A)

the date on which the Internal Revenue Service issued any refund of any overpayment of tax,

(B)

the estimated date on which the taxpayer can expect to receive such refund, and

(C)

(i)

if the refund will be issued by electronic fund transfer, the financial account to which such refund will be deposited, including—

(I)

the partial or full account number for such account, and

(II)

the name and routing number of the financial institution, or

(ii)

if the refund will be issued by paper check, the address to which the check will be mailed, or

(3)

suspended processing such return, including—

(A)

the reason for the suspension, and

(B)

in the case of any information which was requested by the Internal Revenue Service—

(i)

the information requested,

(ii)

the form and manner for submission of such information, and

(iii)

the date on which such information is due to be submitted to the Internal Revenue Service.

Expansion of callback technology

It is the sense of Congress that—

(1)

taxpayers contacting the Internal Revenue Service should have the option to receive a callback, and

(2)

not later than calendar year 2028, the Internal Revenue Service should provide any taxpayer (including any taxpayer residing outside of the United States) the option to receive a callback for any call made by the taxpayer to an applicable phone number extension (as defined in section 2(d)(2) of this Act) which has not been answered within 5 minutes.

Expansion of online accounts

(a)

In general

Not later than January 1 of the first calendar year beginning more than 18 months after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall make available a website or mobile application which allows any taxpayer (including any taxpayer residing outside of the United States) the ability to—

(1)

in a manner consistent with any applicable limitations under section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, view any return (as defined in section 6103(b)(1) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986), document, notice, or letter (with the exception of any educational item which has no legal effect) which, during the applicable period (as defined in subsection (d)), has been—

(A)

sent by the Internal Revenue Service to such taxpayer, or

(B)

filed with (or, in the case of any document not required to be filed, sent to) the Internal Revenue Service—

(i)

by such taxpayer,

(ii)

by a person described in subsection (c) of section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 with respect to such taxpayer, or

(iii)

with respect to such taxpayer in a manner described in subsection (e) of such section,

(2)

with respect to any document, notice, or letter sent to such taxpayer by the Internal Revenue Service, respond to such document, notice, or letter by uploading or otherwise transmitting the taxpayer’s response through the website or mobile application, and

(3)

in the case of—

(A)

any representative of such taxpayer who is authorized to practice before the Department of the Treasury pursuant to section 330 of title 31, United States Code,

(B)

any tax return preparer (as defined in section 7701(a)(36) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986) with an identifying number (as described in section 6109(a)(4) of such Code), or

(C)

any qualified reporting agent,

permit such representative, preparer, or agent, to the extent authorized by the taxpayer, to access the information described in paragraph (1) or transmit any information described in paragraph (2).

(b)

Availability for viewing

With respect to any return, document, notice, or letter described in paragraph (1) of subsection (a), such return, document, notice, or letter shall be made available for viewing by the taxpayer (or, pursuant to paragraph (3) of such subsection, any representative, tax return preparer, or qualified reporting agent authorized by the taxpayer) as soon as is practicable and within such periods as are established pursuant to regulations prescribed by the Secretary.

(c)

Access to multiple accounts by representative, preparer, or agent

For purposes of subsection (a)(3), the website or mobile application shall allow a representative, tax return preparer, or qualified reporting agent to be able to access information for multiple taxpayers who have provided permission under such subsection without any requirement to individually and separately access the account of each such taxpayer.

(d)

Applicable period

(1)

In general

Subject to paragraph (2), for purposes of subsection (a)(1), the term applicable period means the preceding 6-year period.

(2)

Prospective application

The term applicable period shall not include any years ending before the date of enactment of this Act.

(e)

Qualified reporting agent

(1)

In general

For purposes of this section, the term qualified reporting agent means a person—

(A)

which is properly authorized as an agent to sign and file employment tax returns, make related payments and deposits, and perform such other acts on behalf of a taxpayer under procedures set forth by the Secretary,

(B)

which has met such requirements as may be established by the Secretary, and

(C)

for which authorization has not been revoked or suspended by the Secretary pursuant to procedures established by the Secretary.

(2)

Employment tax return

For purposes of paragraph (1)(A), the term employment tax return means—

(A)

any return required to be filed by an employer to report the obligations of the employer and its employees under section 3101, 3111, 3301, or 3402 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, and

(B)

such other returns as designated by the Secretary.

(f)

Preventing unauthorized disclosure of return information by persons designated by taxpayers

Not later than January 1 of the first calendar year beginning more than 18 months after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall—

(1)

establish a program to investigate and address—

(A)

any access, use, or disclosure of return information (as defined in section 6103(b) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986) by any person which is in excess of the authorization permitted to such person pursuant to subsection (a)(3), and

(B)

any related misconduct, and

(2)

annually publish, on the public website of the Internal Revenue Service, the actions undertaken pursuant to the program described in paragraph (1), such as the number of complaints investigated, the number of persons whose access was revoked, and other relevant statistical data.

(g)

Focus groups

For purposes of subsection (a), prior to the date that the website or mobile application described in such subsection is made available, the Secretary shall conduct focus groups with taxpayers and tax professionals to ensure that any amounts appropriated or

otherwise made available for such purposes are expended in an appropriate manner.

Passed the House of Representatives April 27, 2026.

Kevin F. McCumber,

Clerk.