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H.R. 9499119th CongressTaxation
Protecting Taxpayers from Ghost Preparers Act
Sponsored by Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) · 0 active
Latest action: Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
Where it standsPassed House, now in the Senate11 senators score as swing votes
Passed House
- House: passedSep 15, 2026
- Senate: next
- President: not yet
Summary
, via Congress.govProtecting Taxpayers from Ghost Preparers Act
This bill limits the amount of time the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has to assess taxes related to fraudulent or false federal tax returns where there is no intent by the taxpayer to evade taxes.
As background, the IRS generally has three years from the date that a tax return is filed (statute of limitations) to assess taxes owed by the taxpayer for the tax year. However, if a false or fraudulent tax return is filed with the intent to evade tax (fraud exception), then the IRS may assess taxes at any time. In
Murrin v. Commissioner
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the U.S. Tax Court held (and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit affirmed) that the fraud exception applies when a tax return preparer places false or fraudulent entries on a tax return without the taxpayer’s knowledge. In contrast, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims held in
BASR Partnership v. Commissioner
that the fraud exception only applies if the taxpayer intends to evade taxes.
The bill limits the fraud exception to cases in which the taxpayer intends to evade taxes.
How the projections held up
Each member’s recorded vote compared with their swing projection from before the vote. A member by voting against most of their own party.
House
Passed by voice vote or unanimous consent: no individual votes recorded.
Committees and subjects
Committees
- House Committee on Ways and Means · HouseReported by · Markup by · Referred to
- Senate Committee on Finance · SenateReferred to
Subjects
- Civil actions and liability
- Fraud offenses and financial crimes
- Service industries
- Tax administration and collection, taxpayers
Model
Directional: count only breaks toward the other partyWhy do scores change?v3default (selected)v2 model swing-v2
How the Senate breaks down
- 11Swing 70–100
- 64Middle 30–70
- 25Entrenched 0–30
Members fall into . All 100 senators have enough data to score.
Key players in the Senate
Ranked by swing score, 0–100 · swing-v3, directional: only movement toward the other party counts, so members who sit further from the center than their party no longer score as swing votes.
Bars show each input from 0 to 100: ideology gap, scorecard gap, , and the . is the seat’s partisan lean, and shows how much of the input data a score has.
Similar past votes, Senate
Earlier behind swing-v3’s inputLoading similar votes
Cosponsors
0 activeThis bill has no cosponsors.
How the swing score works
Ideology gapHow far a member’s DW-NOMINATE voting score sits from their party’s median in the same chamber.
Scorecard gapHow far their Heritage Action and LCV ratings stray from their party’s average, using the groups’ votes on similar bills where available.
Cross-pressureHow strongly their district or state leans toward the other party, from our own computed partisan lean.
Similar votesHow often they voted against their own party on earlier roll calls about this bill or similar ones.
Committee bonusMembers of the committees handling the bill decide whether it moves, so they get a boost.
Cosponsor checkThe sponsor and active cosponsors have already committed, so they drop toward entrenched.
