- No clear beneficiaries surfaced yet.
BARCODE Efficiency Act
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
<p><strong>Barcode Automation for Revenue Collection to Organize Disbursement and Enhance Efficiency Act or the BARCODE Efficiency Act</strong></p><p>This bill requires the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to use barcodes, barcode scanning technology, and optical character recognition (or similar) technology to digitize certain federal tax return information and correspondence, unless the technology is slower or less reliable than other IRS processes (subject to conditions). </p><p>Specifically, the bill requires a scannable barcode on electronically-prepared federal tax returns that are printed and filed in paper format with the IRS. The bill also requires the IRS to use barcode scanning technology to convert data included on such returns into an electronic format.</p><p>Further, the bill requires the IRS to use optical character recognition (or similar) technology to transcribe federal tax returns and correspondence received by the IRS that are not prepared electronically and are received in paper format.</p><p>However, under the bill, the use of barcodes, barcode scanning technology, and optical character recognition (or similar) technology is not required if (1) such technology is slower or less reliable than manual transcription or any other IRS process, and (2) the IRS provides a report to Congress regarding the determination to not use such technology.</p>
The main political fault lines are not fully surfaced yet, so coalition durability is still unclear.
The next hurdle is converting committee movement into a floor coalition.
<p><strong>Barcode Automation for Revenue Collection to Organize Disbursement and Enhance Efficiency Act or the BARCODE Efficiency Act</strong></p><p>This bill requires the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to use barcodes, barcode scanning technology, and optical character recognition (or similar) technology to digitize certain federal tax return information and correspondence, unless the technology is slower or less reliable than other IRS processes (subject to conditions). </p><p>Specifically, the bill requires a scannable barcode on electronically-prepared federal tax returns that are printed and filed in paper format with the IRS.
The bill also requires the IRS to use barcode scanning technology to convert data included on such returns into an electronic format.</p><p>Further, the bill requires the IRS to use optical character recognition (or similar) technology to transcribe federal tax returns and correspondence received by the IRS that are not prepared electronically and are received in paper format.</p><p>However, under the bill, the use of barcodes, barcode scanning technology, and optical character recognition (or similar) technology is not required if (1) such technology is slower or less reliable than manual transcription or any other IRS process, and (2) the IRS provides a report to Congress regarding the determination to not use such technology.</p>
This bill has moved beyond introduction, but committee and floor dynamics still determine whether it can build durable support.
How solid the drafting looks.
The main political fault lines are not fully surfaced yet, so coalition durability is still unclear.
Who stands to gain, and who may push back.
These are examples from the analysis, not a ranked list of the most-affected groups.
- No clear downsides surfaced yet.
Why the argument around this bill splits.
The main political fault lines are not fully surfaced yet, so coalition durability is still unclear.
The main political fault lines are not fully surfaced yet, so coalition durability is still unclear.
The main political fault lines are not fully surfaced yet, so coalition durability is still unclear.
The main political fault lines are not fully surfaced yet, so coalition durability is still unclear.
The path through Congress.
Reached or meaningfully advanced
Reached or meaningfully advanced
Still ahead
Still ahead
Still ahead
This bill has moved beyond introduction, but committee and floor dynamics still determine whether it can build durable support.
- The next hurdle is converting committee movement into a floor coalition.
Recent votes on the bill.
No vote history yet
The bill has not accumulated any surfaced votes yet.
Go deeper than the headline read.
The main political fault lines are not fully surfaced yet, so coalition durability is still unclear.
This bill has moved beyond introduction, but committee and floor dynamics still determine whether it can build durable support.
Pro readers get the full perspective split, passage barriers, legislative design review, stakeholder impact map, and lens-based policy tradeoff analysis for BARCODE Efficiency Act.
Go beyond the headline summary with full stakeholder mapping, legislative design analysis, passage barriers, and lens-by-lens tradeoff breakdowns.