The House Ways and Means Committee has advanced bipartisan legislation aimed at speeding up IRS tax return processing by expanding the use of barcode and scanning technology, a move supporters say could significantly reduce delays for paper filers.

According to Accounting Today, the Barcode Automation for Revenue Collection to Organize Disbursement and Enhance Efficiency Act, or BARCODE Efficiency Act, was approved unanimously and now heads to the House floor. 

The bill would require electronically prepared tax returns that are printed and mailed to include a scannable barcode, allowing the IRS to convert the data into electronic format upon receipt.

It would also direct the agency to use barcode scanning and optical character recognition, or similar technology, to digitize paper returns and correspondence, unless those tools prove slower or less reliable than existing processes. In that case, the IRS would be required to report it’s decision to Congress. 

House Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith said that “slow processing should not be the punishment for filing on paper,” noting that delays often stem from manual data entry.

Rep. Brad Schneider echoed that concern, explaining that when returns cannot be captured electronically, “IRS employees sit at a keyboard and enter that data manually,” a process that “takes time and increases the likelihood of errors.”

Supporters argue that the technology is neither new nor experimental and is already used by many states. With millions of paper returns still filed each year, proponents see the bill as a practical step toward modernizing IRS operations and improving taxpayer service.