Filer Voter Act

Tax preparers must offer voter forms

This bill would treat most tax preparers as places that must make voter registration forms available. Paid preparers who prepare 100 or more individual returns would be covered; preparers who prepare fewer than 100 returns in the year or prior year would be excluded. In person, preparers could comply by displaying the State's mail voter registration form where customers can see and access it. Online preparers would need a prominent link, in the same tax software, to the EAC mail form or the state's online registration site. Preparers would be exempt from accepting completed forms for transmittal, from providing in-agency registration statements, and from the usual transmittal deadline. The bill would include certified volunteer preparers funded under the Treasury's Community VITA matching grants or Tax Counseling for the Elderly programs. The Election Assistance Commission would be directed to write implementing rules. The Treasury would give guidance, add a voter-registration question and checkbox to volunteer intake sheets, and require funded volunteer sites to clearly display registration forms; those Treasury changes would take effect upon enactment. The preparer definition would apply to taxable years occurring after December 2021.