H.R. 5349 — what changed
Tax Court Improvement Act
From Introduced in House to Reported in House. 3 sections amended between Introduced in House and Reported in House.
Section 1 Short title; etc
Short title— This Act may be cited as the “Tax Court Improvement Act”.
Amendment of 1986 code— Except as otherwise expressly provided, whenever in this Act an amendment is expressed in terms of an amendment to a section or other provision, the reference shall be considered to be made to a section or other provision of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986.
removed
References to Secretary— For purposes of this Act, the term Secretary means the Secretary of the Treasury or the Secretary’s delegate.
renumbered
was (5)
Table of contents— The table of contents of this Act is as follows:
Sec. 3 Authorization of special trial judges to hear additional cases and address contempt
Consent to assignment— Section 7443A(b) is amended by striking “and” at the end of paragraph (6), by redesignating paragraph (7) as paragraph (8), and by inserting after paragraph (6) the following new paragraph:
“(7) upon the consent of the parties, and pursuant to rules promulgated by the Tax Court, any proceeding not described in paragraphs (1) through (6), and”
Authorizing special trial judge— Section 7443A(c) is amended by striking “or (6)” and inserting “(6), or (7)”.
Contempt authority— Section 7443A is amended by adding at the end the following new subsection:
“(f) Incidental powers—A special trial judge appointed under this section shall have the power to punish for contempt of the authority of the Tax Court as provided in section 7456(c), except the sentence imposed by such a special trial judge for any contempt shall not exceed the penalties for a Class C misdemeanor as set forth in sections 3571(b)(6) and 3581(b)(8) of title 18, United States Code. This subsection shall not be construed to limit the authority of a special trial judge to order sanctions under any other statute or any rule of the Tax Court prescribed pursuant to section 7453.”
changed
Effective date— The amendment amendments made by subsections (a) and (b) shall take effect on the date the United States Tax Court adopts rules implementing the consent procedures of section 7443A.
Sec. 5 Clarification of Tax Court jurisdiction to apply equitable tolling in deficiency cases
In general— Section 7451(b) is amended to read as follows:
“(b) Tolling of time
“(1) In general—The Tax Court shall have jurisdiction to toll the period for filing a petition under section 6213(a) in cases in which the Tax Court determines based on the facts and circumstances that equity warrants such tolling.
“(2) Rules for inaccessible filing locations
“(A) In general—Notwithstanding any other provision of this title, in any case (including by reason of a lapse in appropriations) in which a filing location is inaccessible or otherwise unavailable to the general public on the date a petition is due, the relevant time period for filing such petition shall be tolled for the number of days within the period of inaccessibility plus an additional 14 days.
“(B) Filing location—For purposes of this paragraph, the term filing location means—
“(i) the office of the clerk of the Tax Court, or
“(ii) any on-line portal made available by the Tax Court for electronic filing of petitions.”
Conforming amendment— Section 7459(d) is amended—
by striking “If a petition” and inserting the following:
“(1) In general—If a petition”
by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
“(2) Exception—Paragraph (1) shall not apply with respect to any dismissal which is solely based on a determination of the Tax Court not to toll the period for filing a petition under section 6213(a).”
changed
Effective date— The amendments made by this subsection section shall apply to filings made after the date of the enactment of this Act.
No inference— The amendment made by subsections (a) shall not be construed to create any inference with respect to the jurisdiction of the Tax Court with respect to any petition filed on or before the date of the enactment of this Act.