Legislative update: House Ways and Means approves seven tax bills aimed at providing tax relief and improving tax administration; JCT descriptions
The legislative package includes provisions concerning hostages, fraud victims, taxpayer advocacy, artificial intelligence, return preparers, IRS workforce modernization, and nonprofit hospitals.
The House Committee on Ways and Means today marked up and approved seven tax bills aimed at providing tax relief for hostages and victims of financial fraud, while also improving tax administration through enhanced taxpayer advocacy participation, oversight of artificial intelligence (AI) in tax compliance, increased enforcement against ghost return preparers, IRS workforce modernization, and greater transparency for tax-exempt hospitals.
Read opening statements from Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO) and Ranking Member Richard Neal (D-MA).
In advance of the markup, the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) released descriptions of the bills and the amendments in the nature of a substitute.
- H.R. 9496, the “End Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act,” (approved by a vote of 40-0) would postpone tax deadlines and reimburse paid late fees for U.S. nationals who are unlawfully or wrongfully detained or held hostage abroad.
- H.R. 9500, the “Tax Relief for Fraud Victims Act,” (approved by a vote of 39-0) would repeal the limitation on deductions for personal casualty losses and provide for increased taxpayer relief with respect to theft losses involving fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation.
- H.R. 9498, the “Taxpayer Advocate Participation Act,” (approved by a vote of 39-0) would authorize the National Taxpayer Advocate to appear as amicus curiae in federal tax cases.
- H.R. 9501, the “AI Tax Integrity Act of 2026,” (approved by a vote of 40-0) would require the Comptroller General to submit a report to the appropriate committees of Congress on the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) to assist the IRS in detecting tax fraud.
- H.R. 9499, the “Protecting Taxpayers from Ghost Preparers Act,” (approved by a vote of 40-0) would amend the Code to apply tax return preparation penalties to improperly altered returns.
- H.R. 7972, the “Taxpayer Workforce Modernization Act,” (approved by a vote of 24-16) would require the IRS to establish a fellowship program to recruit qualified data scientists to partner with tax law specialists and provide insights and identify emerging and complex issues in tax administration, ranging from data acquisition and quality through developing advanced analytics, statistics, and models to improve core tax administration activities in services and enforcement.
- H.R. 9504, the “Tax Exempt Hospital Transparency Act,” (approved by a vote of 25-15) would amend the Code to establish additional reporting requirements for hospital organizations.