II 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 2347 

To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to exclude employer 

contributions to student loan repayment from income, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JULY 31, 2019 

Mr. GARDNER introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred 

to the Committee on Finance 

A BILL 

To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to exclude 

employer contributions to student loan repayment from 

income, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Student Loan Repay5 ment Acceleration Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. EXCLUSION FOR EMPLOYER CONTRIBUTIONS TO 

7 STUDENT LOAN REPAYMENT. 

8 (a) IN GENERAL.—Part III of subchapter B of chap9 ter 1 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended 

10 by inserting after section 139G the following new section: 


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1 ‘‘SEC. 139H. EMPLOYER CONTRIBUTIONS TO STUDENT 

2 LOAN REPAYMENT. 

3 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Gross income of an employee 

4 shall not include any qualifying student loan payment. 

5 ‘‘(b) QUALIFYING STUDENT LOAN PAYMENT.—For 

6 purposes of this section— 

7 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—In the case of an indi8 vidual, the term ‘qualifying student loan payment’ 

9 means any payment or contribution made by the in10 dividual’s employer in repayment of a qualified edu11 cation loan (as defined in section 221(d)(1)) in12 curred to pay the higher education expenses of the 

13 individual, without regard to whether such payment 

14 is made as a match to payments made by the indi15 vidual, independently of any payments by the indi16 vidual, or is determined in any other manner. 

17 ‘‘(2) LIMITATION.—Such term shall not include 

18 any such payments or contributions to the extent 

19 they exceed $10,000 during the taxable year. 

20 ‘‘(c) NONDISCRIMINATION RULES.— 

21 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Rules similar to the rules 

22 of paragraphs (2), (3), and (4) of section 127(b) 

23 shall apply to any program or policy of an employer 

24 to provide qualifying student loan payments to em25 ployees of the employer. Subsection (a) shall not 

26 apply to any qualifying student loan payment made 


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1 under a program or policy which does not satisfy 

2 such rules. 

3 ‘‘(2) ELIGIBILITY.—For purposes of the rules 

4 described in paragraph (1), an employee of an em5 ployer shall not be treated as ineligible to receive 

6 qualifying student loan payments under a program 

7 or policy of the employer solely because such em8 ployee does not have debt incurred under a qualified 

9 education loan (as defined in section 221(d)(1)). 

10 ‘‘(d) SELF-EMPLOYED INDIVIDUALS, ETC.—For pur11 poses of this section— 

12 ‘‘(1) EMPLOYEE.—The term ‘employee’ in13 cludes, for any year, an individual who is an em14 ployee within the meaning of section 401(c)(1). 

15 ‘‘(2) EMPLOYER.—An individual who owns the 

16 entire interest in an unincorporated trade or busi17 ness shall be treated as the individual’s own em18 ployer. A partnership shall be treated as the em19 ployer of each partner who is an employee within the 

20 meaning of paragraph (1).’’. 

21 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.— 

22 (1) Paragraph (7) of section 127(c) of the In23 ternal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended to read as 

24 follows: 


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1 ‘‘(7) DENIAL OF DOUBLE BENEFIT.—No deduc2 tion, credit, or exclusion shall be allowed to the em3 ployee under any other section of this chapter for 

4 any amount excluded from income by reason of this 

5 section, including the amount of any qualifying stu6 dent loan payment which is excluded from income 

7 under section 139H.’’. 

8 (2) Paragraph (1) of section 221(e) of such 

9 Code is amended by inserting ‘‘, or for any amount 

10 for which an exclusion is allowable under section 

11 139H’’ before the period. 

12 (c) EXCLUSION OF QUALIFYING STUDENT LOAN

13 PAYMENTS FROM PAYROLL TAXES.— 

14 (1) IN GENERAL.—Paragraph (20) of section 

15 3121(a) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is 

16 amended by striking ‘‘or 132’’ and inserting ‘‘132, 

17 or 139H’’. 

18 (2) FEDERAL UNEMPLOYMENT TAX.—Para19 graph (16) of section 3306(b) of such Code is 

20 amended by striking ‘‘or 132’’ and inserting ‘‘132, 

21 or 139H’’. 

22 (d) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of sections 

23 for part III of subchapter B of chapter 1 of the Internal 

24 Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by inserting after the 

25 item relating to section 139G the following new item: 

‘‘Sec. 139H. Employer contributions to student loan repayment.’’. 


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1 (e) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 

2 this section shall apply to taxable years beginning after 

3 December 31, 2019. 

Æ 


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