Summary

Gives the U.S. Tax Court broader procedural tools: expands who in the court may administer oaths and issue subpoenas (including for electronically stored information), authorizes depositions, and lets special trial judges handle more proceedings by party consent and impose limited contempt sanctions. It also makes the federal judicial-disqualification law explicitly apply to Tax Court judges and adds an equitable-tolling rule for the Tax Court’s filing deadline when filing systems are inaccessible or under other equitable circumstances. The changes mainly affect Tax Court judges and staff, litigants (including taxpayers and their representatives), and court operations by clarifying powers, recusal rules, and deadlines; one provision becomes effective when the Tax Court adopts implementing rules and the tolling rule applies to filings made after enactment.

• Expands who in the Tax Court can administer oaths and issue subpoenas, including for electronically stored information anywhere in the U.S.
• Authorizes depositions under Tax Court rules and requires written, subscribed deposition testimony.
• Allows parties to consent to assign nearly any Tax Court proceeding to a special trial judge once the court adopts consent rules.
• Grants special trial judges limited contempt power, capped at penalties equivalent to a Class C misdemeanor, while preserving other sanction authorities.
• Makes the federal judicial-disqualification statute (28 U.S.C. § 455) explicitly applicable to Tax Court judges and special trial judges.
• Creates explicit equitable-tolling authority for Tax Court filing periods and a bright-line toll during public inaccessibility plus 14 days.
• Tolling provisions apply to filings made after enactment; assignment expansion becomes effective when the Tax Court issues implementing rules.
• No new appropriations or emergency designations are included; changes are primarily procedural and administrative.