Trump signs law requiring the IRS to clean up adjustment notices

The Internal Revenue Service Math and Taxpayer Help Act, or IRS MATH Act, is now law after President Donald Trump signed it on Monday.

The bipartisan, bicameral proposal is meant to simplify the notices that millions get in their mailboxes annually when the IRS makes adjustments to returns with straightforward math or clerical fixes. 

“The IRS has caused headaches and confusion when a taxpayer makes a fixable mistake on their taxes, providing no explanation as to why a refund is different than expected, or how to correct an error,” Rep. Randy Feenstra, R-Iowa, said in a statement.

The tax agency will now be required to give specific information about what error the IRS is fixing and how, instead of offering a list of potential problems. The notices are also now required to have more information on the 60 days recipients have to contest the adjustment if they want to.

Feenstra and Rep, Brad Schneider, D-Ill., along with Sens. Bill Cassidy, R-La., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., introduced the proposal in February after a similar bill didn’t pass during the last Congress.

The National Taxpayer Advocate — an independent organization within the IRS focused on taxpayers — has been encouraging lawmakers to make these changes for years. 

The law “strengthens taxpayer rights and reaffirms a core principle of tax administration: that every taxpayer deserves clear, accurate, and timely communication from their government,” the organization said in a new blog post about the changes.

Working to simplify notices won’t be completely foreign to the IRS. Under the Biden administration, the IRS underwent a push to redesign and simplify the most common notices to it sends to taxpayers.