TITLE 26 - US CODE - CHAPTER 92 - POWERS AND DUTIES OF THE JOINT COMMITTEE

26 USC 8021 - Powers

(a) To obtain data and inspect income returns
For powers of the Joint Committee to obtain and inspect income returns, see section 6103 (f).

(b) Relating to hearings and sessions
The Joint Committee, or any subcommittee thereof, is authorized

(1) To hold
To hold hearings and to sit and act at such places and times;

(2) To require attendance of witnesses and production of books
To require by subpoena (to be issued under the signature of the chairman or vice chairman) or otherwise the attendance of such witnesses and the production of such books, papers, and documents;

(3) To administer oaths
To administer such oaths; and

(4) To take testimony
To take such testimony;

as it deems advisable.

(c) To procure printing and binding
The Joint Committee, or any subcommittee thereof, is authorized to have such printing and binding done as it deems advisable.

(d) To make expenditures
The Joint Committee, or any subcommittee thereof, is authorized to make such expenditures as it deems advisable.

(e) Investigations
The Joint Committee shall review all requests (other than requests by the chairman or ranking member of a committee or subcommittee) for investigations of the Internal Revenue Service by the Government Accountability Office, and approve such requests when appropriate, with a view towards eliminating overlapping investigations, ensuring that the Government Accountability Office has the capacity to handle the investigation, and ensuring that investigations focus on areas of primary importance to tax administration.

(f) Relating to joint reviews

(1) In general
The Chief of Staff, and the staff of the Joint Committee, shall provide such assistance as is required for joint reviews described in paragraph (2).

(2) Joint reviews
Before June 1 of each calendar year after 1998 and before 2005, there shall be a joint review of the strategic plans and budget for the Internal Revenue Service and such other matters as the Chairman of the Joint Committee deems appropriate. Such joint review shall be held at the call of the Chairman of the Joint Committee and shall include two members of the majority and one member of the minority from each of the Committees on Finance, Appropriations, and Governmental Affairs of the Senate, and the Committees on Ways and Means, Appropriations, and Government Reform and Oversight of the House of Representatives.

26 USC 8022 - Duties

It shall be the duty of the Joint Committee

(1) Investigation

(A) Operation and effects of law
To investigate the operation and effects of the Federal system of internal revenue taxes;

(B) Administration
To investigate the administration of such taxes by the Internal Revenue Service or any executive department, establishment, or agency charged with their administration; and

(C) Other investigations
To make such other investigations in respect of such system of taxes as the Joint Committee may deem necessary.

(2) Simplification of law

(A) Investigation of methods
To investigate measures and methods for the simplification of such taxes, particularly the income tax; and

(B) Publication of proposals
To publish, from time to time, for public examination and analysis, proposed measures and methods for the simplification of such taxes.

(3) Reports

(A) To report, from time to time, to the Committee on Finance and the Committee on Ways and Means, and, in its discretion, to the Senate or House of Representatives, or both, the results of its investigations, together with such recommendations as it may deem advisable.

(B) Subject to amounts specifically appropriated to carry out this subparagraph, to report, at least once each Congress, to the Committee on Finance and the Committee on Ways and Means on the overall state of the Federal tax system, together with recommendations with respect to possible simplification proposals and other matters relating to the administration of the Federal tax system as it may deem advisable.

(C) To report, for each calendar year after 1998 and before 2005, to the Committees on Finance, Appropriations, and Governmental Affairs of the Senate, and to the Committees on Ways and Means, Appropriations, and Government Reform and Oversight of the House of Representatives, with respect to the matters addressed in the joint review referred to in section 8021 (f)(2).

(4) Cross reference
For duties of the Joint Committee relating to refunds of income and estate taxes, see section 6405.

26 USC 8023 - Additional powers to obtain data

(a) Securing of data
The Joint Committee or the Chief of Staff of the Joint Committee, upon approval of the Chairman or Vice Chairman, is authorized to secure directly from the Internal Revenue Service, or the office of the Chief Counsel for the Internal Revenue Service, or directly from any executive department, board, bureau, agency, independent establishment, or instrumentality of the Government, information, suggestions, rulings, data, estimates, and statistics, for the purpose of making investigations, reports, and studies relating to internal revenue taxation. In the investigation by the Joint Committee on Taxation of the administration of the internal revenue taxes by the Internal Revenue Service, the Chief of Staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation is authorized to secure directly from the Internal Revenue Service such tax returns, or copies of tax returns, and other relevant information, as the Chief of Staff deems necessary for such investigation, and the Internal Revenue Service is authorized and directed to furnish such tax returns and information to the Chief of Staff together with a brief report, with respect to each return, as to any action taken or proposed to be taken by the Service as a result of any audit of the return.

(b) Furnishing of data
The Internal Revenue Service, the office of the Chief Counsel for the Internal Revenue Service, executive departments, boards, bureaus, agencies, independent establishments, and instrumentalities are authorized and directed to furnish such information, suggestions, rulings, data, estimates, and statistics directly to the Joint Committee or to the Chief of Staff of the Joint Committee, upon request made pursuant to this section.

(c) Application of subsections (a) and (b)
Subsections (a) and (b) shall be applied in accordance with their provisions without regard to any reorganization plan becoming effective on, before, or after the date of the enactment of this subsection.