Cassidy-led Legislation to Simplify IRS Notices Passes Senate, Heads to President Trump’sdesk

WASHINGTON –U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA) applauded the U.S. Senate passage of hisInternal Revenue Service Math and Taxpayer Health (IRS MATH) Actto improve math error notices, an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) authority used to quickly adjust taxpayers’ returns. This legislation now heads to President Trump’s desk for signature.
“Americans should have every opportunity to keep their hard-earned income,”said Dr. Cassidy.“If the IRS thinks someone made an honest mistake filing their taxes, the IRS should be clear about how to correct it.”
“No one should have to spend a fortune on a lawyer or hours trying to figure out what went wrong on their taxes when the IRS already knows the answer,”said Senator Warren. “Our bill is a common-sense bipartisan solution to protect taxpayers and help put more money in their pockets.”
The Internal Revenue Code allows the IRS to make “math error” corrections — expedited adjustments to tax returns that contain simple math or clerical errors. Unlike other adjustments, which are made after a notice period and are challengeable in U.S. Tax Court, math and clerical adjustments are made automatically and require taxpayers to initiate responses to reverse them within 60 days. If the taxpayer does not contest the notice within the 60 days, the taxpayer forfeits their right to challenge, and the IRS can move forward with its normal collections process.
Each year, millions of Americans receive math error notices reducing their tax refunds but find the notices “vague and confusing” because they do not explain what error the IRS has corrected or that taxpayers have only 60 days to challenge the IRS’s position. The notices often list several potential errors that may have been made rather than specifying the exact issue,  and they do not properly notify taxpayers of ways to contest the IRS adjustment, resulting in compounding errors on future tax returns and further risks to taxpayers. The legislation aims to improve the unworkable system to help taxpayers, who cannot afford lawyers to help them navigate the complicated correspondence process. The legislation follows the 2024 tax filing deadline and vastly improved taxpayer services this filing season, but the lawmakers are urging the IRS to build on those improvements by fixing long-standing issues with math error notices.
The IRS MATH Act addresses this problem for taxpayers by directing the IRS to improve notices of math or clerical errors, requiring that notices:
Cassidy was joined by U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) in introducing the legislation. U.S. Representatives Brad Schneider (D-IL-10) and Randy Feenstra (R-IA-04) introduced the bill in the U.S. House of Representatives.
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