Internal Revenue Service Math and Taxpayer Help Act
Requires IRS notices about math errors on a tax return to say plainly what the error is, how the IRS changed the return, and how long the taxpayer has to dispute it.
What this law changes
From a secondary sourceRequires IRS notices about math errors on a tax return to say plainly what the error is, how the IRS changed the return, and how long the taxpayer has to dispute it.
This account is written from the official description of the bill. We have saved the law's official text and have not finished checking the account against it.
Transparency Score
The Transparency Score is the share of this law’s dollars that goes to what the law says it is for.
Transparency Score
Share of the text within the stated purpose:Not checked yetThe text of this law provides and authorizes no dollar amount. The score is the share of its text within the stated intent. That share is "Not checked yet": no reading of this law is approved by a person yet.
How this is counted
- Transparency Score: dollars in sections a person approved as within the stated intent, divided by total dollars in the law. Shown as a percentage. Higher means more of the money goes to what the law says it is for.
- Beside it, the same two numbers the other way round: total dollars divided by dollars within the stated intent. 1.00 means every dollar is within the stated intent. When no dollar is within the stated intent this ratio cannot be computed, and the answer says so.
- Total dollars: appropriated dollars plus authorized dollars, read from the law's text by the rules below. Dollars in a section whose reading is unclear or was not read count in the total and are shown apart as unclear.
- A law whose text provides and authorizes no dollar amount reads "No money in this law". Its score is the share of its words that are in sections within the stated intent.
- The score reads "Not checked yet" until a person approves the law's reading of which sections are within the stated intent. The dollar totals need no reading and are shown before that.
- The dollar totals read "Not checked yet" when more than 10 percent of the dollars read could not be sorted by the rules.
- Every dollar amount in our saved text of the law is read: "$1,234,567", "$5 billion", "$2.5 million". Margin notes, page marks and the table of contents are left out. Each amount is kept with the words printed around it.
- Appropriated: the sentence says "there is appropriated", "is hereby appropriated" or "out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated"; or the amount is the one an appropriations paragraph ("For ..., $X") provides under an account heading of an appropriations act.
- Authorized: the sentence says "authorized to be appropriated". An authorization lets a later law provide the money. It provides none itself.
- A list under such a sentence ("there is appropriated the following: (1) ...; (2) ..."): an amount that begins an item is counted the same way as the sentence says, unless the sentence gives a total first. Then the items are parts of that total.
- "$X for each of fiscal years 2026 through 2030" is counted as X times the number of years named (here 5). The yearly figure, the years and the product are all kept. "For each fiscal year" with no years named is counted once, and the answer says so.
- Open-ended: "such sums as may be necessary" names no amount. It is counted as an item and adds no dollars.
- Rescinded: "is hereby rescinded", "permanently cancelled", or an item of a list headed "the following funds are hereby rescinded". Shown apart. Not subtracted from the total.
- Not spending, and left out of the total: an amount after "not to exceed", "not more than", "up to", "less than", "in excess of" and like words; a fine or penalty; a limit the law raises ("the limitation is increased by $X"); a figure the law strikes from another law; and a figure inside words it writes into another law ("striking $X and inserting $Y"), unless the same sentence says the figure is authorized or appropriated.
- Counted once: an amount after "of which", after "Provided, That", or after "of the amounts made available" is a part of a total already counted. Where a paragraph ends "in all, $X", that total is counted and the amounts before it are its parts.
- An amount the rules cannot sort is "not classified". It is listed with its words and left out of the total. Nothing is guessed.
- Total dollars: appropriated dollars plus authorized dollars. The two are also shown apart.
What the law says it is for
Confirmed from the official recordThese are the law’s own words, and the words of Congress’s records, about what the law is for.
Official title
“To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to require additional information on math and clerical error notices.”
The words under "An Act", Public Law 119-39, official text · Saved October 5, 2026 · Fingerprint f248b91aeedc656a
Short title
“Internal Revenue Service Math and Taxpayer Help Act”
The sentence that names the Act, Public Law 119-39, official text · Saved October 5, 2026 · Fingerprint f248b91aeedc656a
Congress's summary · Congressional Research Service
“Internal Revenue Service Math and Taxpayer Help Act This act requires the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to provide specific information on a notice related to a math or clerical error, send a notice related to an abatement of taxes assessed due to a math or clerical error, provide procedures for requesting such an abatement, and implement a pilot program for sending notices of a math or clerical error. Under the act, a notice sent by the IRS regarding a math or clerical error must include a clear description of the error, including the type of error and the specific federal tax return line on which the error was made; an itemized computation of adjustments required to correct the error; the telephone number for the automated transcript service; and the deadline for requesting an abatement of any tax assessed due to the error.”
The quote stops here. The source has the full text.
Summary of the version: Public Law, Congressional Research Service summary: Public Law · Saved October 6, 2026 · Fingerprint 18641297aa6136ce
Committee report, purpose · House committee
“H.R. 998 was introduced on February 10, 2025, and was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means. Committee Hearings On February 11, 2025, the Committee on Ways and Means held a hearing titled, ``IRS Return on Investment and the Need for Modernization''.”
"Background", House Report 119-42: INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE MATH AND TAXPAYER HELP ACT · Saved October 6, 2026 · Fingerprint 6aa9c80db76d384d
The law has no findings or purpose section.
Dollars in this law
Confirmed from the official recordThe text of this law provides and authorizes no dollar amount.
Source: Public Law 119-39, official text · Saved October 5, 2026 · Fingerprint f248b91aeedc656a
Other measures
Each measure has its own status. None is added into the score.
- Dollars in sections added along the way
- No money in this law
- Member-requested dollars as a share of appropriated dollars
- $0Confirmed from the official record
House Report 119-42: INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE MATH AND TAXPAYER HELP ACT says the bill carries none. The sentence is quoted.
- Open-ended amounts (“such sums as may be necessary”)
- 0 passagesConfirmed from the official record
- Other bills whose text this law contains
- 0 billsConfirmed from the official record
- How the House passed it
- Voice vote, March 31, 2025Confirmed from the official record
- How the Senate passed it
- Unanimous consent, October 20, 2025Confirmed from the official record
- Committee report saved
- 1 reportConfirmed from the official record
- Hearing saved
- None in the official recordConfirmed from the official record
The bill's official record names no hearing.
A voice vote or unanimous consent leaves no record of how each member voted.
How these are counted
- Added along the way, sections: sections of the final law marked "added later", divided by the sections compared.
- Added along the way, words: words in those sections, divided by the words in the sections compared.
- Each text is read as a list of words. A run is 5 words in a row. For each section of the final law we count the share of its runs that appear anywhere in the first published text of the bill. 90 percent or more: in the first text. From 20 to 90 percent: changed. Under 20 percent: added later. A section with fewer than 20 words is not compared.
- Sections outside the stated intent: sections a person approved as outside the stated intent, divided by the sections read. The same count is given in words.
- Member-requested spending: the number of items in the lists Congress printed for the law, and the sum of their dollar amounts.
- A part that is not checked yet is shown as "Not checked yet". It is never counted as zero. No single blended number is given.
Time to read before the House vote
How long the text is public before the House votes on it. This measure is not added into the score.
- House
- 75 hours 30 minutes (3 days 3 hours)Confirmed from the official record
The House Clerk posted the last file of this floor item on March 28, 2025 at 1:22 p.m. Eastern. The House voted on March 31, 2025 at 4:53 p.m. Eastern.
The floor item was first listed on March 25, 2025 at 4:25 p.m. Eastern, 144 hours 27 minutes before the vote. Files were added or replaced after that, and the time is counted from the last file made public before the vote.
8 pages: H.R. 998, Engrossed in House. The page count GovInfo gives for this text. The copy posted for the floor can be laid out on a different number of pages.
The vote: On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended Agreed to by voice vote. (text: CR H1348-1349)
Posted: House Clerk, bills to be considered, week of 2025-03-31 · Saved October 8, 2026 · Fingerprint c4ce5206eab4168a
Voted: Actions on H.R. 998, Congress's data service · Saved October 8, 2026 · Fingerprint 22e1404cde3ab51a
Pages: GovInfo's record of BILLS-119hr998eh · Saved October 8, 2026 · Fingerprint 5b3194e90bd645d6
How the time zone is checked
- This vote has no recorded vote time in UTC to check the time zone against. The same field is checked on every House vote that has a recorded vote time in UTC.
- The file's own update stamp read as Eastern time is the same moment as the Last-Modified time (GMT) the file was served with.
- Senate
- Not published yet
The Senate publishes no time stamp for when the text of a bill is posted, so no time to read is given for the Senate.
How this is counted
- Posted: the moment the last file of the floor item became public on the House Clerk's weekly list of bills, before the vote. A file is public from the first time the list was published at or after the moment the file was added.
- A floor item lists the bill text and can list papers that go with it, such as an explanatory statement. The list does not say which file is which. So the count runs from the last file made public before the vote, and the moment the item was first listed is shown beside it. The count is never longer than the real time to read.
- Voted: the time of the House floor action in Congress's data service. When the House voted on the bill more than once, the last vote is used: that is the vote on the text that went on to become law.
- Time to read: voted minus posted, in hours and minutes. Both are Eastern time.
- Pages: the page count GovInfo gives for the text of the bill as the House voted on it. The copy posted for the floor can be laid out on a different number of pages.
- Which floor item: the one that names the bill. When several name it, the one whose words name the same kind of vote. When the House voted on the bill more than once that week and the list does not tell the votes apart, no figure is given.
- A floor item taken off the list, two floor items that fit, a text made public only after the vote, or a time zone check that shows another time zone: the figure reads "Not checked yet".
Congressional Budget Office cost estimates
Congress’s data service lists this estimate for the bill behind this law. Each link opens the estimate at cbo.gov. We keep no copy: cbo.gov turns our reader away with a bot check, and we do not get around a refusal.
- H.R. 998, Internal Revenue Service Math and Taxpayer Help Act
As passed by the House of Representatives on March 31, 2025
H.R. 998, Congress's data service · Saved October 8, 2026 · Fingerprint 43fe901f63d854c2
Added along the way
Confirmed from the official record0 of the 1 section compared are added after the first published text of the bill. None is changed. 1 is in the first text. 1 heading or short section is too short to compare.
A section counts as added later when under 20 percent of its wording appears in the first published text.
The first published text (Introduced in House, February 5, 2025): H.R. 998, Introduced in House · Saved October 7, 2026 · Fingerprint 6746f3420656c8cd
Published texts of this bill, in order: Introduced in House (February 5, 2025), Reported in House (March 27, 2025), Engrossed in House (March 31, 2025), Referred in Senate (April 1, 2025), Enrolled Bill.
Sections added later
No section compared is added later.
Amendments adopted
The record lists no adopted amendment to this bill.
Other bills whose text this law contains
The Congressional Research Service marks no other bill as one whose text this law contains.
Member-requested spending
Confirmed from the official recordA committee report on this bill says the bill, as the committee reported it, carries no spending item requested by a member.
“With respect to clause 9 of rule XXI of the Rules of the House of Representatives, the Committee has carefully reviewed the provisions of the bill, and states that the provisions of the bill do not contain any congressional earmarks, limited tax benefits, or limited tariff benefits within the meaning of the rule.”
House Report 119-42: INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE MATH AND TAXPAYER HELP ACT · Saved October 6, 2026 · Fingerprint 6aa9c80db76d384d
Sections outside the stated intent
Not checked yetA person reviews each reading before it appears here.
What this law changes in taxes
This law amends federal tax law in 2 places, in 1 section of the law.
Each provision below is one sentence of the law that says a part of a federal tax law is amended or repealed. The words are the law’s own. This section does not say how much tax anyone pays.
| Tax type | Provisions |
|---|---|
| Other tax law | 2 |
Each provision, in the law’s order
- Section 2: IMPROVEMENT OF NOTICES OF MATH OR CLERICAL ERROR (a)Other tax law
Amends section 6213(b)(1) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986.
“Section 6213(b)(1) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended-- (1) by striking ``errors.--If the taxpayer'' and inserting ``errors.-- ``(A) In general.--If the taxpayer'', (2) by striking ``Each notice'' in the second sentence and inserting ``Subject to subparagraph (B), each notice'', and (3) by adding at the end the following new subparagraph:”
The quote stops here. The law’s text has the rest.
Effective date, in the law’s words (subsection (c)): “The amendments made by this section shall apply to notices sent after the date which is 12 months after the date of the enactment of this Act.”
- Section 2: IMPROVEMENT OF NOTICES OF MATH OR CLERICAL ERROR (b)Other tax law
Amends section 6213(b) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986.
“Paragraph (2) of section 6213(b) is amended by adding at the end the following new subparagraph: ``(C) Notice.--Upon determination of an abatement pursuant to subparagraph (A), the Secretary shall send notice to the taxpayer of such abatement which-- ``(i) is sent to the taxpayer's last known address, ``(ii) describes the abatement in comprehensive, plain language, and ``(iii) provides an itemized computation of any adjustments to be made to the items described in the notice of mathematical or clerical error, including any changes to any item described in paragraph (1)(B)(i)(III).''.”
Effective date, in the law’s words (subsection (c)): “The amendments made by this section shall apply to notices sent after the date which is 12 months after the date of the enactment of this Act.”
How we read a law for this section
- A provision is one sentence of the law that says a part of a tax law "is amended" or "is repealed". The words are quoted from our saved copy of the law. Words inside text the law inserts into another law are not read as provisions.
- A sentence counts when it names the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 or title 26 of the United States Code; when it says "such Code" and the last Code named in that section of the law is the Internal Revenue Code of 1986; when the law says that its amendments are to be read as amendments to the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 and the sentence names no other law; or when the sentence names no law at all and the amending sentence before it, in the same section of the law, amended the Internal Revenue Code of 1986.
- A sentence that amends the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States or the Tariff Act of 1930 is listed under "Tariffs and customs duties".
- The tax type comes from the number of the Code section the sentence names. Sections 1 to 5, 21 to 26, 32, 35, 36, 36B, 62, 63, 67, 68, 151 to 153 and 211 to 224 apply to individuals: "Individual income tax". Sections 11, 12, 59A, 241 to 250, 301 to 385, 531 to 565 and 1501 to 1564 apply to corporations: "Corporate income tax". Every other section from 1 to 1400Z and 1411 to 1564 is "Income tax, individuals and businesses". Sections 1401 to 1403 and 3101 to 3512: "Payroll taxes". Sections 2001 to 2801: "Estate and gift taxes". Sections 4001 to 5891: "Excise taxes". Every other section, such as the rules on returns, penalties and trust funds: "Other tax law".
- A sentence that names a chapter or subtitle of the Code and no section is sorted by that chapter or subtitle. A sentence that adds a new section is sorted by the new section's number.
- "Old and new" is shown only where the law says both: "striking X and inserting Y". Other dollar amounts and percentages in the sentence are listed as printed.
- A change to a table of contents or a change headed "Conforming" or "Clerical" is listed apart.
- A law reads "This law changes no tax" only when our saved copy reaches the end of the law, no sentence above is found, the text does not name the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, the Internal Revenue Service, the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States, a tariff, a duty or a named tax, and the margin of the official print cites title 26 of the United States Code nowhere.
- Nothing here says how much tax anyone pays. That takes figures the law's text does not state.
Read from: Public Law 119-39, official text · Saved October 5, 2026 · Fingerprint f248b91aeedc656a
On the record
On the record: Not started.
Press releases by members of Congress
From a secondary sourceThese are press releases from members' official websites that name this law. We save a copy of each one.
1 press release
-
Yakym Votes to Advance Legislation to Fight Fraud and Improve Tax System
“The House Ways and Means Committee held a markup yesterday of H.R. 997, H.R. 998, H.R. 1152, H.R. 1155, and H.R. 1156, important pieces of legislation that will strengthen accountability, transparency, and customer service within the tax system. The bills were ordered favorably reported to the House of Representatives.”
Read from 539 of 539 members' sites, releases since January 3, 2025, through October 8, 2026.
Press releases by organizations
No saved press release from these organizations names this law.
Read from 510 of 510 organizations' sites, releases since January 3, 2025, through October 8, 2026.
What it touches
Kind of law: New or changed rules. Budget effect: No direct effect on agency budgets.
Government
- Revenue and taxation
- Service delivery
The economy
- Taxes
Daily life
- Household budget
Agencies it funds or directs
Dollar amounts:Not checked yetHow it passed
The House passed it by voice vote on March 31, 2025. A voice vote records no individual votes.
The Senate passed it without objection on October 20, 2025. No individual votes are recorded.
How each member votes
Both chambers passed this law without a recorded vote, so no individual votes exist. The House: passed by voice vote (no individual votes recorded). The Senate: passed without objection (no individual votes recorded).
Lobbying reports that name this bill
Confirmed from the official record1 saved lobbying report names H.R. 998. The amount is what the report gives for the whole quarter: everything the registrant did for that client, all issues together. A linked name opens that organization’s page on this site.
| Registrant | Client | Amount for the whole quarter | Quarter | Filed | Report |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AICPA ASSOCIATION OF INTERNATIONAL CERTIFIED PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTANTS | AICPA ASSOCIATION OF INTERNATIONAL CERTIFIED PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTANTS | $1,550,000.00reported as expenses | April to June 2026 | Open the report |
See the lobbying page for H.R. 998
Senate Office of Public Records cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from LDA.gov.
Lobbying Disclosure Act reports, LDA.gov. This copy was read October 8, 2026 at 3:34 AM Eastern.
Where this comes from
The links below open the official files for this law. A code beside a file is its fingerprint, a short code that changes if the file's contents change.