Louisiana
Louisiana lawmaker authors bill to simplify tax errors, help drug crisis
BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First) — A new law signed by President Donald Trump could make simple tax return mistakes easier to fix.
U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy authored The IRS Math Act, aiming to clear up confusion around IRS error notices. Millions of Americans receive a letter from the IRS saying, “There’s a math error” on their federal return every year.
For many, the notices are hard to understand, and even harder to fix, but the new IRS Math Act aims to change that.
“For all of you who called our office, my office, you made an honest mistake on your tax return, and now you feel the whole weight of the IRS coming after you,” said Cassidy. “It says if you make an honest mistake, you confess, you pay the difference, and all is clear,” Senator Cassidy said.
The bill requires the IRS to make the error notices on federal returns clearer and provide a path for correcting honest mistakes. It spells out how taxpayers can respond, what they owe, and how to resolve issues without escalation. The bill passed with bipartisan support.
Trump also signed another bill from Cassidy, the Support Act, which further targets the fentanyl crisis in the U.S.
“The Support Act is about preventing, treating, and delivering recovery services for Americans co-diagnosed with both addiction and mental illness,” said Cassidy. “One law enforcement officer I spoke to said, ‘You cannot arrest your way out of this epidemic of drug abuse.’ So, we’ve got to address two things at once in this bill — addiction and mental illnesses; they often go together. Now, I speak as a doctor, I know that giving the opportunity to be healed, to return to wholeness, is one of the ways we get out of this drug crisis.”
Implementation guidelines for the acts are expected from federal agencies in the coming months.