To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to allow taxpayers to elect to receive certain replacement refunds electronically.
Summary
What This Bill Does
The Recovery of Stolen Checks Act adds a new Internal Revenue Code section 6402(o). Within six months of enactment, the Treasury Secretary must prescribe regulations establishing procedures for taxpayers who are otherwise eligible to receive a replacement paper refund check after a lost or stolen original refund check to elect direct deposit instead. The election applies to replacement refunds for overpayments of tax and takes effect on enactment.
Who Benefits and How
Taxpayers whose refund checks are lost, stolen, delayed, or vulnerable to mail theft; low-income taxpayers waiting on refunds; tax preparers helping clients recover missing checks; financial institutions receiving direct deposits; IRS taxpayer-assistance staff; and Treasury payment modernization teams benefit from a faster and safer replacement-refund path. Direct deposit can reduce repeat mail theft, check-cashing delays, paper-check reissuance, and taxpayer calls about missing replacement checks.
Who Bears the Burden and How
The Treasury Department, Internal Revenue Service refund-processing systems, Bureau of the Fiscal Service payment systems, IRS fraud-prevention staff, taxpayer authentication teams, call centers, and tax software providers must build election procedures, verify bank-account information, update forms and notices, issue regulations within six months, and manage fraud controls for electronic replacement refunds.
Key Provisions
- Adds Internal Revenue Code section 6402(o) for replacement refund direct deposit elections.
- Requires Treasury regulations within six months of enactment.
- Allows eligible taxpayers replacing lost or stolen paper refund checks to elect direct deposit.
- Applies to replacement refunds for tax overpayments originally sent by paper check.
- Takes effect on the date of enactment.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Requires Treasury to create regulations within six months allowing taxpayers whose original paper tax refund check was lost or stolen to elect direct deposit for the replacement refund instead of another paper check.
Key Policy Areas
Tax Administration, Payments, IRS
Primary Purpose
Requires Treasury to create regulations within six months allowing taxpayers whose original paper tax refund check was lost or stolen to elect direct deposit for the replacement refund instead of another paper check.
Policy Domains
Substantive provisions
Identified Gains
- Taxpayers with lost refund checks
- Taxpayers with stolen refund checks
- Low-income refund recipients
- Tax preparers
- Financial institutions receiving direct deposits
- IRS taxpayer-assistance staff
Identified Costs
- Treasury Department
- Internal Revenue Service refund-processing systems
- Bureau of the Fiscal Service
- IRS fraud-prevention staff
- Taxpayer authentication teams
- Tax software providers
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
Passed HouseReceived; read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance
Passed House (inferred from eh version)
Additional sponsor: Mr. Issa
Reported with an amendment, committed to the Committee of the …
Ms. Malliotakis (for herself, Ms. Sewell, and Mr. Kustoff) introduced …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Taxpayers with lost refund checks, Taxpayers with stolen refund checks
Bureau of the Fiscal Service, Internal Revenue Service refund systems
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "replacement_refund"
- → A refund replacing a lost or stolen paper check previously sent for a tax overpayment.
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology