A bipartisan pair of senators has introduced legislation that would require the IRS to implement barcode technology to speed up the agency’s tax filing process while saving money for the agency.
Sens. Tom Carper D-Del., and Todd Young R-Ind., introduced the Barcode Automation for Revenue Collection to Organize Disbursement and Enhance (BARCODE) Efficiency Act today.
“As government officials, we have a responsibility to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars. That includes ensuring that tax returns are processed accurately and in a timely manner,” said Senator Carper.
Sen. Carper said the measure would implement “commonsense technology that will increase the efficiency of the IRS and make a big difference for millions of American taxpayers.”
The bill would instruct the IRS to use 2-D barcode technology that will help minimize errors and make it easier and faster for the agency to convert paper-based tax returns into a digital format.
“Millions of Americans are forced to wait months – and sometimes years – for the IRS to process their tax returns,” said Sen. Young. “Our bipartisan bill will better serve taxpayers by improving the processing of paper returns, reducing errors, and requiring the IRS to operate more efficiently.”
The legislation comes as the National Taxpayer Advocate and the Government Accountability Office have made recommendations for a similar barcode solution that would help improve the processing of paper tax returns.
The senators said that some state tax agencies have been using the same technology for years, and that it has proven successful in accelerating tax filing processes.
“The archaic, manual transcription process the IRS uses to process paper returns today results in substantial delays and imposes significant costs on the agency, and this bill works well with the agency’s current plans and existing allocated funding to modernize processing protocols to more efficiently process paper returns and clear the backlogs,” the senators said.
