I

107TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 1012

To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to allow a credit against

income tax for expenses incurred in teleworking.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

MARCH 13, 2001

Mr. WOLF (for himself, Mr. TOM DAVIS of Virginia, Mrs. MORELLA, Mr.

EHLERS, Mrs. TAUSCHER, and Mr. UDALL of Colorado) introduced the

following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means

A BILL

To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to allow a

credit against income tax for expenses incurred in teleworking.

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 ‘‘Telework Tax Incen5 tive Act’’.

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

7 The Congress finds as follows:
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1 (1) Federal, State, and local governments spend

2 billions of dollars annually on the Nation’s transpor3 tation needs.

4 (2) Congestion on the Nation’s roads costs over

5 $74,000,000,000 annually in lost work time, fuel

6 consumption, and costs of infrastructure and equip7 ment repair.

8 (3) On average on-road-vehicles contribute 30

9 percent of nitrogen oxides emissions.

10 (4) It is estimated that staying at home to work

11 requires 3 times less energy consumption than com12 muting to work.

13 (5) It was recently reported that if an identified

14 10 to 20 percent of commuters switched to tele15 working, 1,800,000 tons of regulated pollutants

16 would be eliminated, 3,500,000,000 gallons of gas

17 would be saved, 3,100,000,000 hours of personal

18 time would be freed up, and maintenance and infra19 structure costs would decrease by $500,000,000 an20 nually because of reduced congestion and reduced

21 vehicle miles traveled.

22 (6) The average American daily commute is 62

23 minutes for a 44-mile round-trip (a total of 6 days

24 per year and 5,808 miles per year).
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1 (7) The increase in work from 1969 to 1996,

2 the increase in hours mothers spend in paid work,

3 combined with a shift toward single-parent families

4 resulted in families on average experiencing a de5 crease of 22 hours a week (14 percent) in parental

6 time available outside of paid work they could spend

7 with their children.

8 (8) Companies with teleworking programs have

9 found that teleworking can boost employee produc10 tivity 5 percent to 20 percent.

11 (9) Today 60 percent of the workforce is in12 volved in information work (an increase of 43 per13 cent since 1990) allowing and encouraging decen14 tralization of paid work to occur.

15 (10) In recent years, studies performed in the

16 United States have shown a marked expansion of

17 teleworking, with an estimate of 19,000,000 Ameri18 cans teleworking by the year 2002, 5 times the

19 amount in 1990.

20 SEC. 3. CREDIT FOR TELEWORKING.

21 (a) IN GENERAL.—Subpart B of part IV of sub22 chapter A of chapter 1 of the Internal Revenue Code of

23 1986 (relating to foreign tax credit, etc.) is amended by

24 adding at the end the following new section:
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1 ‘‘SEC. 30B. TELEWORKING CREDIT.

2 ‘‘(a) ALLOWANCE OF CREDIT.—In the case of an eli3 gible taxpayer, there shall be allowed as a credit against

4 the tax imposed by this chapter for the taxable year an

5 amount equal to the qualified teleworking expenses paid

6 or incurred by the taxpayer during such year.

7 ‘‘(b) MAXIMUM CREDIT.—

8 ‘‘(1) PER TELEWORKER LIMITATION.—The

9 credit allowed by subsection (a) for a taxable year

10 with respect to qualified teleworking expenses paid

11 or incurred by or on behalf of an individual tele12 worker shall not exceed $500.

13 ‘‘(2) REDUCTION FOR TELEWORKING LESS

14 THAN FULL YEAR.—In the case of an individual who

15 is in a teleworking arrangement for less than a full

16 taxable year, the amount referred to paragraph (1)

17 shall be reduced by an amount which bears the same

18 ratio to $500 as the number of months in which

19 such individual is not in a teleworking arrangement

20 bears to 12. For purposes of the preceding sentence,

21 an individual shall be treated as being in a tele22 working arrangement for a month if the individual

23 is subject to such arrangement for any day of such

24 month.

25 ‘‘(c) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this section—
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1 ‘‘(1) ELIGIBLE TAXPAYER.—The term ‘eligible

2 taxpayer’ means—

3 ‘‘(A) in the case of an individual, an indi4 vidual who performs services for an employer

5 under a teleworking arrangement, and

6 ‘‘(B) in the case of an employer, an em7 ployer for whom employees perform services

8 under a teleworking arrangement.

9 ‘‘(2) TELEWORKING ARRANGEMENT.—The term

10 ‘teleworking arrangement’ means an arrangement

11 under which an employee teleworks for an employer

12 not less than 75 days per year.

13 ‘‘(3) QUALIFIED TELEWORKING EXPENSES.—

14 The term ‘qualified teleworking expenses’ means ex15 penses paid or incurred under a teleworking ar16 rangement for furnishings and electronic information

17 equipment which are used to enable an individual to

18 telework.

19 ‘‘(4) TELEWORK.—The term ‘telework’ means

20 to perform work functions, using electronic informa21 tion and communication technologies, thereby reduc22 ing or eliminating the physical commute to and from

23 the traditional worksite.

24 ‘‘(d) LIMITATION BASED ON AMOUNT OF TAX.—
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1 ‘‘(1) LIABILITY FOR TAX.—The credit allowable

2 under subsection (a) for any taxable year shall not

3 exceed the excess (if any) of—

4 ‘‘(A) the regular tax for the taxable year,

5 reduced by the sum of the credits allowable

6 under subpart A and the preceding sections of

7 this subpart, over

8 ‘‘(B) the tentative minimum tax for the

9 taxable year.

10 ‘‘(2) CARRYFORWARD OF UNUSED CREDIT.—If

11 the amount of the credit allowable under subsection

12 (a) for any taxable year exceeds the limitation under

13 paragraph (1) for the taxable year, the excess shall

14 be carried to the succeeding taxable year and added

15 to the amount allowable as a credit under subsection

16 (a) for such succeeding taxable year.

17 ‘‘(e) SPECIAL RULES.—

18 ‘‘(1) BASIS REDUCTION.—The basis of any

19 property for which a credit is allowable under sub20 section (a) shall be reduced by the amount of such

21 credit (determined without regard to subsection (d)).

22 ‘‘(2) RECAPTURE.—The Secretary shall, by reg23 ulations, provide for recapturing the benefit of any

24 credit allowable under subsection (a) with respect to
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1 any property which ceases to be property eligible for

2 such credit.

3 ‘‘(3) PROPERTY USED OUTSIDE UNITED

4 STATES, ETC., NOT QUALIFIED.—No credit shall be

5 allowed under subsection (a) with respect to any

6 property referred to in section 50(b) or with respect

7 to the portion of the cost of any property taken into

8 account under section 179.

9 ‘‘(4) ELECTION NOT TO TAKE CREDIT.—No

10 credit shall be allowed under subsection (a) for any

11 expense if the taxpayer elects to have this section

12 not apply with respect to such expense.

13 ‘‘(5) DENIAL OF DOUBLE BENEFIT.—No deduc14 tion or credit (other than under this section) shall

15 be allowed under this chapter with respect to any ex16 pense which is taken into account in determining the

17 credit under this section.’’.

18 (b) TECHNICAL AMENDMENT.—Subsection (a) of

19 section 1016 of such Code is amended by striking ‘‘and’’

20 at the end of paragraph (26), by striking the period at

21 the end of paragraph (27) and inserting ‘‘; and’’, and by

22 adding at the end the following new paragraph:

23 ‘‘(28) to the extent provided in section 30B(e),

24 in the case of amounts with respect to which a credit

25 has been allowed under section 30B.’’
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1 (c) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of sections

2 for subpart B of part IV of subchapter A of chapter 1

3 of such Code is amended by adding at the end the fol4 lowing new item:

‘‘Sec. 30B. Teleworking credit.’’

5 (d) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by

6 this section shall apply to amounts paid or incurred after

7 the date of the enactment of this Act, in taxable years

8 ending after such date.

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