Digitization of tax returns and correspondence

(a) Returns accepted electronically Any Federal tax return which any person is required to file with the Secretary, as well as any amendments to such return— (1) may be filed by such person electronically, and (2) if such return or amendment is filed electronically, shall be processed electronically by the Secretary. (b) Digitization of returns and correspondence The Internal Revenue Service shall use optical character recognition technology (or any functionally similar technology) to transcribe— (1) any return which is received by the Internal Revenue Service only in a paper form, or (2) any correspondence which is received by the Internal Revenue Service only in a paper form. (c) Exceptions (1) In general Subsection (b) shall not apply to any technology to the extent that the Secretary determines such technology is slower or less reliable than— (A) the process of manually transcribing returns or correspondence received in a paper form, or (B) any other process that the Internal Revenue Service is using or would otherwise use. (2) Report to congress Any exception to the application of a technology described in subsection (b) pursuant to paragraph (1) shall not take effect unless the Secretary provides a report to the Committee on Ways and Means of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Finance of the Senate regarding the determination made by the Secretary under such paragraph within 30 days of such determination. (d) Effective date This section shall apply to— (1) any individual income tax return (as defined in section 6011(e)(3)(C) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986) received on or after January 1 of the first calendar year beginning more than 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act, (2) any estate tax return (as described in section 6018 of such Code) or gift tax return (as described in section 6019 of such Code) received on or after January 1 of the first calendar year beginning more than 24 months after the date of enactment of this Act, and (3) any other return or correspondence received on or after January 1 of the first calendar year beginning more than 18 months after the date of enactment of this Act.