II 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 43 

To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide a Federal income 

tax credit for certain stem cell research expenditures. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JANUARY 7, 2015 

Mr. VITTER 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 provide 

a Federal income tax credit for certain stem cell research 

expenditures. 

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 ‘‘Ethical Stem Cell Re5 search Tax Credit Act of 2015’’. 

6 SEC. 2. CREDIT FOR ETHICAL STEM CELL RESEARCH. 

7 (a) IN GENERAL.—Subpart D of part IV of sub8 chapter A of chapter 1 of the Internal Revenue Code of 

9 1986 is amended by adding at the end the following new 

10 section: 


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1 ‘‘SEC. 45S. ETHICAL STEM CELL RESEARCH. 

2 ‘‘(a) ALLOWANCE OF CREDIT.—For purposes of sec3 tion 38, in the case of an eligible taxpayer, the ethical stem 

4 cell research credit determined under this section for the 

5 taxable year shall be an amount equal to 30 percent of 

6 the qualified stem cell research expenses paid or incurred 

7 by the taxpayer during the taxable year. 

8 ‘‘(b) ELIGIBLE TAXPAYER.—For purposes of this 

9 section, the term ‘eligible taxpayer’ means any taxpayer 

10 that elects the application of this section for the taxable 

11 year. 

12 ‘‘(c) QUALIFIED STEM CELL RESEARCH EX13 PENSES.—For purposes of this section— 

14 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘qualified stem 

15 cell research expenses’ means expenses which are 

16 paid or incurred by the eligible taxpayer during the 

17 taxable year in carrying on basic and applied re18 search to develop techniques for the isolation, deriva19 tion, production, testing, and human clinical use of 

20 stem cells that may result in improved under21 standing of or treatments for diseases and other ad22 verse health conditions, no part of which may in23 volve— 

24 ‘‘(A) the creation of a human embryo for 

25 research purposes, 


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1 ‘‘(B) the destruction of or discarding of, or 

2 risk of injury to, a human embryo, or 

3 ‘‘(C) the use of any stem cell, the deriva4 tion or provision of which would be inconsistent 

5 with subparagraph (A) or (B). 

6 ‘‘(2) HUMAN EMBRYO.—The term ‘human em7 bryo’ means any organism not protected as a human 

8 subject under part 46 of title 45, Code of Federal 

9 Regulations (as in effect on the date of the enact10 ment of this section) that is derived by fertilization, 

11 parthenogenesis, cloning, or any other means from 

12 one or more human gametes or human diploid cells. 

13 ‘‘(3) RISK OF INJURY.—The term ‘risk of in14 jury’ means subjecting a human embryo to risk of 

15 injury or death greater than that allowed for re16 search on a fetus in utero under section 498(b) of 

17 the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 289g(b)) 

18 (as in effect on the date of the enactment of this 

19 section) and section 46.204(b) of title 45, Code of 

20 Federal Regulations (as so in effect). 

21 ‘‘(d) TREATMENT OF QUALIFIED STEM CELL RE22 SEARCH EXPENSES.— 

23 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in para24 graph (2), any qualified stem cell research expenses 

25 for a taxable year to which an election under this 


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1 section applies shall not be taken into account for 

2 purposes of determining the credit allowable under 

3 section 41 for such taxable year. 

4 ‘‘(2) TREATED AS BASE PERIOD RESEARCH EX5 PENSES.—Any qualified stem cell research expenses 

6 for any taxable year which are qualified research ex7 penses (within the meaning of section 41(b)) shall be 

8 taken into account in determining base period re9 search expenses for purposes of applying section 41 

10 to subsequent taxable years. 

11 ‘‘(e) SPECIAL RULES.— 

12 ‘‘(1) LIMITATION.—No credit shall be allowed 

13 under this section with respect to any stem cell re14 search conducted by a corporation to which an elec15 tion under section 936 applies. 

16 ‘‘(2) AGGREGATION OF EXPENDITURES AND AL17 LOCATIONS OF CREDIT.—Rules similar to the rules 

18 of paragraphs (1) and (2) of section 41(f) and sec19 tion 41(g) shall apply for purposes of this section.’’. 

20 (b) CREDIT ALLOWED AS PART OF GENERAL BUSI21 NESS CREDIT.—Section 38(b) of the Internal Revenue 

22 Code of 1986 is amended by striking ‘‘plus’’ at the end 

23 of paragraph (35), by striking the period at the end of 

24 paragraph (36) and inserting ‘‘, plus’’, and by adding at 

25 the end the following new paragraph: 


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1 ‘‘(37) the ethical stem cell research credit deter2 mined under section 45S(a).’’. 

3 (c) DENIAL OF DOUBLE BENEFIT.— 

4 (1) TECHNICAL AMENDMENT.—The second sub5 section (g) of section 280C of the Internal Revenue 

6 Code of 1986, as added by section 1401(b) of the 

7 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, is re8 designated as subsection (i). 

9 (2) IN GENERAL.—Section 280C of the Internal 

10 Revenue Code of 1986, as amended by paragraph 

11 (1), is further amended by adding at the end the fol12 lowing new subsection: 

13 ‘‘(j) ETHICAL STEM CELL RESEARCH CREDIT.— 

14 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—No deduction shall be al15 lowed for that portion of the qualified stem cell re16 search expenses (as defined in section 45S(c)(1)) 

17 otherwise allowable as a deduction for the taxable 

18 year which is equal to the amount of the credit de19 termined for such taxable year under section 45S(a). 

20 ‘‘(2) SIMILAR RULE WHERE TAXPAYER CAP21 ITALIZES RATHER THAN DEDUCTS EXPENSES.—If— 

22 ‘‘(A) the amount of the credit determined 

23 for the taxable year under section 45S(a), ex24 ceeds 


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1 ‘‘(B) the amount allowable as a deduction 

2 for such taxable year for qualified stem cell re3 search expenses (determined without regard to 

4 paragraph (1)), 

5 the amount chargeable to capital account for the 

6 taxable year for such expenses shall be reduced by 

7 the amount of such excess. 

8 ‘‘(3) CONTROLLED GROUPS.—Paragraph (3) of 

9 subsection (b) shall apply for purposes of this sub10 section.’’. 

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

12 for subpart D of part IV of subchapter A of chapter 1 

13 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by add14 ing at the end the following new item: 

‘‘Sec. 45S. Ethical stem cell research.’’. 

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

16 this section shall apply to amounts paid or incurred after 

17 the date of the enactment of this Act. 

Æ 


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