Peoria Standard

This week, the House Ways and Means Committee passed Congressman Darin LaHood's Electronic Filing and Payment Fairness Act. The legislation aims to simplify tax filing and payment processes for American families and small businesses by applying the "mailbox rule" to documents and payments electronically submitted to the IRS. This change is intended to eliminate unnecessary late fees and administrative burdens for nearly 90% of Americans who file their taxes electronically.

Rep. LaHood stated, "This commonsense bill, which has been included in the National Taxpayers Advocate’s Purple Book of Legislative Recommendations, would simply amend the tax code to apply the ‘mailbox rule’ to electronic submissions of payments and documents to the IRS."

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith supported the bill, saying, "Congress has a duty to strengthen taxpayer rights by making it easy and fair for Americans to file their taxes." He added that Rep. LaHood's bill will ensure taxpayers are treated equally regardless of how they file or make payments.

In addition to Rep. LaHood’s tax administration bill, four other pieces of legislation were considered by the committee, including one aimed at strengthening enforcement against unemployment insurance fraud. As Chairman of the Ways and Means Work and Welfare Subcommittee, Rep. LaHood recently chaired a hearing on prosecuting fraudsters who stole billions in COVID-19 Pandemic unemployment benefits.

Witnesses at this hearing urged Congress to extend the statute of limitations beyond March 27, 2025, for prosecuting those who committed unemployment insurance fraud. The expiration would prevent criminals from being brought to justice.

The committee also passed the Pandemic Unemployment Fraud Enforcement Act this week. This legislation extends the statute of limitations for combatting theft of COVID-19 unemployment benefits, allowing law enforcement more time to complete cases and return funds to taxpayers.

Rep. LaHood emphasized during a recent subcommittee hearing that extending this statute is crucial: "Our witnesses made clear that extending the statute of limitations is critical to recovering these dollars." He noted that criminals responsible for past UI benefit thefts are now targeting disaster benefits meant for Los Angeles fire victims and North Carolina hurricane victims.