II 116th CONGRESS 1st Session S. 1876 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES June 18, 2019 Mr. Portman (for himself and Mr. Bennet ) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance A BILL To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to direct the Secretary of the Treasury to establish uniform standards for the use of electronic signatures with respect to any request for disclosure of a taxpayer's return or return information to a practitioner.

1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Electronic Signature Standards Act . 2. Uniform standards for the use of electronic signatures for disclosure authorizations to, and other authorizations of, practitioners Section 6061(b)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended to read as follows: (3) Published guidance (A) In general The Secretary shall publish guidance as appropriate to define and implement any waiver of the signature requirements or any method adopted under paragraph (1). (B) Electronic signatures for disclosure authorizations to, and other authorizations of, practitioners Not later than 6 months after the date of the enactment of this subparagraph, the Secretary shall publish guidance to establish uniform standards and procedures for the acceptance of taxpayers’ signatures appearing in electronic form with respect to any request for disclosure of a taxpayer's return or return information under section 6103(c) to a practitioner or any power of attorney granted by a taxpayer to a practitioner. (C) Practitioner For purposes of subparagraph (B), the term practitioner means any individual in good standing who is regulated under section 330 of title 31, United States Code. .