As reported by the House Committee on Ways and Means on February 20, 2026
H.R. 6956, BARCODE Efficiency ActAs reported by the House Committee on Ways and Means on February 20, 2026
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
By Fiscal Year, Millions of Dollars | 2026 | 2026-2031 | 2026-2036 | ||||||||
Direct Spending (Outlays) | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||
Revenues | * | * | * | ||||||||
Increase or Decrease (-) in the Deficit | * | * | * | ||||||||
Spending Subject to Appropriation (Outlays) | * | * | not estimated | ||||||||
Increases net direct spending in any of the four consecutive 10-year periods beginning in 2037?
| No
| Statutory pay-as-you-go procedures apply?
| Yes
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Mandate Effects
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Increases on-budget deficits in any of the four consecutive 10-year periods beginning in 2037?
| No
| Contains intergovernmental mandate?
| No
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Contains private-sector mandate?
| No
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* = between -$500,000 and $500,000.
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On This Page
H.R. 6956 would require the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to automatically convert and digitize the information on paper income tax returns into electronic form. The IRS would be directed to scan barcodes on electronically prepared paper returns and to use optical character recognition for paper returns filled out by hand. The IRS would be required to implement that change if the Secretary of the Treasury determines that doing so is both faster and more reliable than manually transcribing paper returns, or any other process the IRS is using or would otherwise use.
The staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) provided the revenue estimates for H.R. 6956.[1] JCT estimates that enacting the bill would have an insignificant effect, of an uncertain direction, on revenues over the 2026-2036 period.
Using information from the IRS, CBO expects that H.R. 6956 would largely codify the agency’s Zero Paper Initiative and other current practices and would not significantly change its operations. Therefore, CBO estimates that implementing the bill would increase the IRS’s administrative costs by less than $500,000 over the 2026-2031 period. Any related spending would be subject to the availability of appropriated funds.
The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Jennifer Shand. The estimate was reviewed by John McClelland, Director of Tax Analysis.
Phillip L. Swagel
Director, Congressional Budget Office
1.See Joint Committee on Taxation, Description of H.R. 6956, the “BARCODE Efficiency Act,” JCX-1-26 (January 12, 2026), www.jct.gov/publications/2026/jcx-1-26, and Description of the Chairman’s Amendment in the Nature of a Substitute to H.R. 6956, The “BARCODE Efficiency Act,” JCX-2-26 (January 13, 2026), www.jct.gov/publications/2026/jcx-2-26.