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Faster Tax Processing: Barcodes and Scanning for Paper Returns

This act aims to speed up the processing of tax documents by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). It requires electronically prepared tax returns filed on paper to include scannable codes and mandates the IRS to use scanning technology for all paper documents. This could lead to quicker processing of tax matters and potentially faster refunds for citizens.
Key points
If you prepare your tax return electronically but print and mail it, it will need to include a scannable code.
The IRS will use scanning and optical character recognition (OCR) technology to process all paper tax returns and correspondence.
The goal is to improve efficiency and speed up document handling, which may result in smoother tax interactions.
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Introduced
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Additional Information
Print number: 119_HR_6956
Sponsor: Rep. Schneider, Bradley Scott [D-IL-10]
Process start date: 2026-01-07