I 
108TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 584
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to allow penalty-free 
withdrawals from individual retirement plans for adoption expenses. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
FEBRUARY 5, 2003
Mr. KING of New York (for himself, Mr. OBERSTAR, Mr. WICKER, Mr. 
MCDERMOTT, Mr. OTTER, Mrs. MCCARTHY of New York, Mr. WILSON 
of South Carolina, Ms. CORRINE BROWN of Florida, Mr. BEREUTER, Mr. 
BROWN
of Ohio, Mr. QUINN, Mr. STRICKLAND, Mr. WOLF, Mr. 
MCHUGH, Mr. TIBERI, Mr. LYNCH, Mr. HUNTER, Mr. REYNOLDS, Mr. 
SOUDER, Mr. COSTELLO, Mr. PAUL, Mr. GREEN of Wisconsin, Mr. 
TIAHRT, Mr. SMITH of New Jersey, Mr. WALDEN of Oregon, Mr. BART-
LETT of Maryland, Mr. SIMMONS, Mr. WAMP, Mr. GORDON, Ms. NOR-
TON, Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida, and Mr. FLETCHER) intro-
duced 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 pen-
alty-free withdrawals from individual retirement plans 
for adoption expenses.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Dave Thomas Adop-
tion Act of 2003’’.
SEC. 2. PENALTY-FREE WITHDRAWALS FROM INDIVIDUAL 
RETIREMENT 
PLANS 
FOR 
ADOPTION 
EX-
PENSES. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Paragraph (2) of section 72(t) of 
the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by adding 
at the end the following new subparagraph: 
‘‘(G) QUALIFIED ADOPTION EXPENSES.—
‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—Distributions from 
an individual retirement plan to the extent 
that the amount of such distributions does 
not exceed the lesser of—
‘‘(I) $10,000 for the taxable year 
with respect to the adoption of a 
child, or 
‘‘(II) the amount determined 
under clause (ii). 
‘‘(ii) DETERMINATION OF EXPENSES 
NOT COVERED BY CREDIT.—The amount 
determined under this clause is the excess 
(if any) of—
‘‘(I) the qualified adoption ex-
penses (as defined in section 23(d)) 
paid by the taxpayer during the tax-
able year with respect to the adoption 
of such child, over
‘‘(II) the amount of the credit al-
lowable under section 23 for such ex-
penses (determined as if such credit 
were allowed for such year without re-
gard to any limitation based on liabil-
ity for tax). 
‘‘(iii) SPECIAL
RULES
FOR
CHILD 
WITH SPECIAL NEEDS.—In the case of an 
adoption of a child with special needs (as 
defined in section 23(d)(3))—
‘‘(I) subclauses (I) and (II) of 
clause (i) shall not apply, and 
‘‘(II) a distribution during the 
applicable period from an individual 
retirement plan with respect to such 
adoption shall not be taken into ac-
count under this subparagraph to the 
extent that such distribution, when 
added to all other distributions with 
respect to such adoption from indi-
vidual retirement plans for the appli-
cable period, exceeds $10,000. 
For purposes of subclause (II), the term 
‘applicable period’ means the 3-taxable
year period beginning with the taxable year 
in which such adoption becomes final. 
‘‘(iv) ORDERING RULE.—Distributions 
shall not be taken into account under 
clause (i) if such distributions are de-
scribed in subparagraph (A), (C), (D), (E), 
or (F) or to the extent paragraph (1) does 
not apply to such distributions by reason 
of subparagraph (B).’’. 
(b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by 
this section shall apply to distributions after the date of 
the enactment of this Act.
Æ