Sponsors (2)
The bill can expand and stabilize low‑income taxpayer clinic services by allowing federal grants to be leveraged and by permitting lower match rates, but matching rules and limits on allowable match costs may still strain sponsoring organizations and risk reducing the number or character of clinics serving low‑income taxpayers.
Low-income taxpayers in underserved areas will likely get expanded access to free tax assistance because the Secretary can lower the required non‑federal match to as little as 25%, making more clinics eligible for grants.
Nonprofit Low‑Income Taxpayer Clinics (LITCs) can use federal grant awards to attract additional non‑federal resources (e.g., staff funding, equipment), increasing clinic capacity and sustainability.
Smaller or resource‑constrained LITCs that cannot meet a high matching requirement risk losing federal grant eligibility, which would reduce availability of free tax help for low‑income taxpayers.
Higher matching requirements effectively reduce the net federal support per clinic (because clinics must supply matching funds), which may limit the total number of clinics that can be funded nationwide.
Restricting allowable match dollars to direct costs (salaries, equipment) and excluding recovery of indirect overhead shifts overhead costs onto sponsoring institutions, increasing financial strain on those organizations.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires low-income taxpayer clinics to provide matching funds (mainly salaries and equipment); default match is 100% but Treasury may lower it to no less than 25% to expand coverage.
Requires low-income taxpayer clinics (LITCs) to provide matching funds equal to an applicable percentage of any federal grant and defines what counts as qualifying match. The default applicable percentage is 100%, but the Treasury Secretary may set a lower percentage not less than 25% if doing so would expand clinic coverage to additional taxpayers. Changes apply to calendar years beginning after enactment.
Official title: Amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to modify the matching funds requirement for grants provided to low-income taxpayer clinics.
Introduced June 24, 2026 by Peter Welch · Last progress June 24, 2026