H.R. 7971 — Taxpayer Experience Improvement Act

This section cites the Act as the "Taxpayer Experience Improvement Act"; defines the term "Secretary" as the Secretary of the Treasury or the Secretary's delegate; and sets forth the table of contents.

This section directs the Secretary of the Treasury to require the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to establish a real-time public dashboard on its website providing, for each applicable phone number extension (i.e., IRS lines for accounts management, automated collections, Joint Operations Center, contractors, or those receiving at least 200,000 calls in the prior year), (1) current statistics on callers connected to representatives or automated systems, those waiting, longest wait time, and callback availability; (2) an embedded tool estimating wait times to speak with a representative; (3) an application programming interface for third-party access to such data; and (4) monthly summaries including average and median call lengths and talk times, percentages routed to automation or disconnected, transfer and post-transfer hold times, and caller satisfaction rates. The section further requires the IRS to (1) use technology to detect and screen automated calls and (2) post information during the subsequent week, for any week with a significant delay (i.e., unprocessed applicable items received at least 21 days prior), on the earliest receipt dates of processed items from that week. Applicable items include categories of tax returns, claims, statements, or other documents filed with the IRS. Requirements apply beginning 12 months after enactment.

This section directs the Secretary of the Treasury, not later than January 1 of the first calendar year beginning more than 12 months after enactment, to provide taxpayers via website and mobile application with individualized, specific, and up-to-date information on their tax returns and amended returns. The information covers whether the IRS has (1) received and entered the return into its systems; (2) completed processing, including the refund issuance date, estimated receipt date, and payment details (i.e., for electronic funds transfer, the partial or full account number, financial institution name, and routing number; or for paper check, the mailing address); or (3) suspended processing, including the reason and, if applicable, the requested information, submission method, and due date.

This section expresses the sense of Congress that taxpayers contacting the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) should have the option to receive a callback and that, not later than calendar year 2028, the IRS should provide any taxpayer—including those residing outside the United States—with a callback option for calls to an applicable phone number extension that are not answered within 5 minutes.

This section directs the Secretary of the Treasury to make available, not later than January 1 of the first calendar year beginning more than 18 months after enactment, a website or mobile application allowing taxpayers (including those outside the United States) to (1) view IRS-sent or taxpayer/authorized-person-filed returns, documents, notices, or letters (excluding non-legal educational items) from the preceding 6-year period (prospectively from enactment); (2) respond to IRS documents by uploading responses; and (3) authorize access and transmissions by authorized representatives (i.e., Treasury practitioners under 31 U.S.C. 330), PTIN-holding tax return preparers, or qualified reporting agents (i.e., Secretary-authorized filers of employment tax returns under IRC §§3101, 3111, 3301, or 3402), including multi-account access without separate logins. The section further requires the Secretary to (1) provide such information as soon as practicable per regulations; (2) prior to launch, conduct focus groups with taxpayers and professionals; and (3) establish a program to investigate and annually publicly report unauthorized access, use, or disclosure of return information by designees (e.g., number of investigations, access revocations).