Electronic Filing and Payment Fairness Act
Key claim: The Electronic Filing and Payment Fairness Act treats electronically submitted federal tax documents and payments as delivered on the date sent and requires IRS guidance on electronic submissions by December 31, 2025.
Abstract
(HR1152 · 119th Congress) Electronic Filing and Payment Fairness Act This bill provides that a federal tax document or payment that is electronically submitted to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) shall be considered delivered to the IRS on the date such document or payment is sent. Further, the bill requires the IRS to issue guidance on electronically submitted federal tax documents and payments no later than December 31, 2025. Under current law, a federal tax document or payment that is sent by mail is considered delivered to the IRS on the date that such document or payment is postmarked and is considered timely if the postmark date is on or before the due date of such document or payment. (This is known as the mailbox rule.) Further, under current law, the IRS is authorized to provide guidance on electronically submitted federal tax documents but not payments. In accordance with such authority, IRS guidance provides that the date that an authorized electronic return transmitter receives the transmission of an electronically filed document on its host system is the electronic postmark date. The bill expands the mailbox rule to include all electronically submitted federal tax documents and payments and specifically requires the IRS to provide guidance on electronically submitted payments. Latest action (2025-04-01): Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
Why this matters
The mailbox rule historically protected paper filers from IRS penalties when documents were postmarked on time but delivered late; extending it to electronic submissions closes a fairness gap as e-filing becomes the default channel. Taxpayers relying on electronic payment and filing systems would gain clearer legal protection against timing disputes, while the IRS would face a statutory deadline to publish implementing guidance.