Legal Writing

Plain Language measure sets guidelines for tax, college aid and other forms

Dubuque's congressman, Rep. Bruce Braley, introduced a bill last week that would require the federal government to communicate in easy-to-understand language.

"Anyone who's done their own taxes knows the headache of trying to understand pages and pages of confusing forms and instructions," Braley said. "There is no reason why the federal government can't write these forms and other public documents in a way we can all understand."

The Plain Language in Government Communications Act, HR 3584, sets guidelines for documents like tax returns, college aid applications and forms from the Department of Veteran Affairs. The bill's guidelines instruct document authors to use short, simple words; use "you" and other pronouns when speaking to the reader; use short sentences and paragraphs; and avoid legal, foreign and technical jargon.

The bill, which has two Democratic and two Republican cosponsors, was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, one of the committees Braley serves on.

According to a report appearing on www.plainlanguage.gov, "Plain talk" can result in higher revenue for the government instituting it.

An official in Washington state says their Department of Revenue estimates it has collected about $5 million in additional revenue since rewriting one explanatory tax collection letter in 2003.

Full post as published by Building Rapport on September 24, 2007 (boomark / email).