Sponsors (45)
The bill modernizes and clarifies gendered tax-code language and simplifies certain spousal rules—improving inclusivity and interpretive clarity for most taxpayers—while imposing implementation costs and creating legal/tax uncertainties that could raise compliance burdens and change outcomes for some married couples (notably in community-property states).
All taxpayers: Tax-code language is changed to gender-neutral terms, reducing misgendering and making statutes more inclusive and clear.
Taxpayers, tax preparers, and tax administrators: Modernized, neutral terminology and updated wording reduce ambiguity and may lower administrative errors, disputes, and litigation over outdated phrasing, improving clarity for filing and compliance.
Married couples in partnerships or S-corp contexts: Clarifies that spouses are treated as a single partner/person for certain partnership, S-corp, and loan rules, simplifying application of those provisions for many small-business households.
All taxpayers, IRS, payroll departments, and tax-software vendors: Widespread textual edits will require systems, forms, and guidance updates, creating implementation and transition costs and likely causing short-term filing confusion and higher compliance burdens.
Taxpayers in community-property states: Changes to how community property is treated could alter exclusion calculations and may increase tax liabilities for some married couples.
Small-business owners and some married couples: Treating spouses as a single person for partnership, S-corp, and below-market loan rules could create unintended interactions or edge cases that require IRS guidance or litigation to resolve, producing uncertain tax outcomes.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Replaces gendered spouse language with gender-neutral and spouse-focused terms across many Internal Revenue Code provisions and clarifies a few married‑taxpayer rules.
Introduced June 26, 2025 by Ronald Lee Wyden · Last progress June 26, 2025
Updates the Internal Revenue Code to replace gendered and outdated spouse language with gender-neutral and spouse-focused terms and to harmonize how married people are treated for certain tax rules. It revises wording across many tax provisions and clarifies treatment of married individuals for several partnership, community property, gift, and loan-related rules. Most changes are textual substitutions intended to remove masculine/feminine pronouns and phrases and to use neutral terms like “spouse,” “married individual(s),” or “the spouse of the taxpayer.” A few provisions restate or clarify how married individuals are treated for specific tax rules (for example, partnership attribution, community property exclusions, and gift-splitting), which may affect filing, partnerships, and administrative guidance but are mostly meant to align existing rules with neutral language rather than change tax rates or broad policy.