House Passes Taxpayer Protection Bill

The House observed tax filing day on April 17, 2006, by passing the Taxpayer Protection Bill of 2007 (HR 1677) by a vote of 407 to 7. Included among the eleven provisions are: a provision allowing both spouses in a sole proprietorship to pay Medicare and social security taxes; taxpayer notification of suspected identity theft; extension of time for return of property and holding individuals harmless with respect to IRAs following wrongful levy; prohibition on IRS debt indicators for predatory refund anticipation loans; prohibition of misuse of Treasury and IRS names and symbols; expand outreach efforts for the earned income tax credit; clarify IRS unclaimed refund authority; modification of rules with respect to FIRPTA nonforeign affidavits; disclosure of prisoner return information to Bureau of Prisons; and increased penalties for bad checks and money orders.

The legislation was projected to have negligible revenue effect. It was not immediately clear how the Senate would handle the legislation.