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 tele-
working.
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 ‘‘Telework Tax Incen-
tive Act’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds as follows:
(1) Federal, State, and local governments spend
billions of dollars annually on the Nation’s transpor-
tation needs.
(2) Congestion on the Nation’s roads costs over
$74,000,000,000 annually in lost work time, fuel
consumption, and costs of infrastructure and equip-
ment repair.
(3) On average on-road-vehicles contribute 30
percent of nitrogen oxides emissions.
(4) It is estimated that staying at home to work
requires 3 times less energy consumption than com-
muting to work.
(5) It was recently reported that if an identified
10 to 20 percent of commuters switched to tele-
working, 1,800,000 tons of regulated pollutants
would be eliminated, 3,500,000,000 gallons of gas
would be saved, 3,100,000,000 hours of personal
time would be freed up, and maintenance and infra-
structure costs would decrease by $500,000,000 an-
nually because of reduced congestion and reduced
vehicle miles traveled.
(6) The average American daily commute is 62
minutes for a 44-mile round-trip (a total of 6 days
per year and 5,808 miles per year).
(7) The increase in work from 1969 to 1996,
the increase in hours mothers spend in paid work,
combined with a shift toward single-parent families
resulted in families on average experiencing a de-
crease of 22 hours a week (14 percent) in parental
time available outside of paid work they could spend
with their children.
(8) Companies with teleworking programs have
found that teleworking can boost employee produc-
tivity 5 percent to 20 percent.
(9) Today 60 percent of the workforce is in-
volved in information work (an increase of 43 per-
cent since 1990) allowing and encouraging decen-
tralization of paid work to occur.
(10) In recent years, studies performed in the
United States have shown a marked expansion of
teleworking, with an estimate of 19,000,000 Ameri-
cans teleworking by the year 2002, 5 times the
amount in 1990.
SEC. 3. CREDIT FOR TELEWORKING.
(a) IN GENERAL.—Subpart B of part IV of sub-
chapter A of chapter 1 of the Internal Revenue Code of
1986 (relating to foreign tax credit, etc.) is amended by
adding at the end the following new section:
‘‘SEC. 30B. TELEWORKING CREDIT.
‘‘(a) ALLOWANCE OF CREDIT.—In the case of an eli-
gible taxpayer, there shall be allowed as a credit against
the tax imposed by this chapter for the taxable year an
amount equal to the qualified teleworking expenses paid
or incurred by the taxpayer during such year.
‘‘(b) MAXIMUM CREDIT.—
‘‘(1) PER
TELEWORKER
LIMITATION.—The
credit allowed by subsection (a) for a taxable year
with respect to qualified teleworking expenses paid
or incurred by or on behalf of an individual tele-
worker shall not exceed $500.
‘‘(2) REDUCTION
FOR
TELEWORKING
LESS
THAN FULL YEAR.—In the case of an individual who
is in a teleworking arrangement for less than a full
taxable year, the amount referred to paragraph (1)
shall be reduced by an amount which bears the same
ratio to $500 as the number of months in which
such individual is not in a teleworking arrangement
bears to 12. For purposes of the preceding sentence,
an individual shall be treated as being in a tele-
working arrangement for a month if the individual
is subject to such arrangement for any day of such
month.
‘‘(c) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this section—
‘‘(1) ELIGIBLE TAXPAYER.—The term ‘eligible
taxpayer’ means—
‘‘(A) in the case of an individual, an indi-
vidual who performs services for an employer
under a teleworking arrangement, and
‘‘(B) in the case of an employer, an em-
ployer for whom employees perform services
under a teleworking arrangement.
‘‘(2) TELEWORKING ARRANGEMENT.—The term
‘teleworking arrangement’ means an arrangement
under which an employee teleworks for an employer
not less than 75 days per year.
‘‘(3) QUALIFIED
TELEWORKING
EXPENSES.—
The term ‘qualified teleworking expenses’ means ex-
penses paid or incurred under a teleworking ar-
rangement for furnishings and electronic information
equipment which are used to enable an individual to
telework.
‘‘(4) TELEWORK.—The term ‘telework’ means
to perform work functions, using electronic informa-
tion and communication technologies, thereby reduc-
ing or eliminating the physical commute to and from
the traditional worksite.
‘‘(d) LIMITATION BASED ON AMOUNT OF TAX.—
‘‘(1) LIABILITY FOR TAX.—The credit allowable
under subsection (a) for any taxable year shall not
exceed the excess (if any) of—
‘‘(A) the regular tax for the taxable year,
reduced by the sum of the credits allowable
under subpart A and the preceding sections of
this subpart, over
‘‘(B) the tentative minimum tax for the
taxable year.
‘‘(2) CARRYFORWARD OF UNUSED CREDIT.—If
the amount of the credit allowable under subsection
(a) for any taxable year exceeds the limitation under
paragraph (1) for the taxable year, the excess shall
be carried to the succeeding taxable year and added
to the amount allowable as a credit under subsection
(a) for such succeeding taxable year.
‘‘(e) SPECIAL RULES.—
‘‘(1) BASIS
REDUCTION.—The basis of any
property for which a credit is allowable under sub-
section (a) shall be reduced by the amount of such
credit (determined without regard to subsection (d)).
‘‘(2) RECAPTURE.—The Secretary shall, by reg-
ulations, provide for recapturing the benefit of any
credit allowable under subsection (a) with respect to
any property which ceases to be property eligible for
such credit.
‘‘(3) 
PROPERTY
USED
OUTSIDE
UNITED
STATES, ETC., NOT QUALIFIED.—No credit shall be
allowed under subsection (a) with respect to any
property referred to in section 50(b) or with respect
to the portion of the cost of any property taken into
account under section 179.
‘‘(4) ELECTION
NOT
TO
TAKE
CREDIT.—No
credit shall be allowed under subsection (a) for any
expense if the taxpayer elects to have this section
not apply with respect to such expense.
‘‘(5) DENIAL OF DOUBLE BENEFIT.—No deduc-
tion or credit (other than under this section) shall
be allowed under this chapter with respect to any ex-
pense which is taken into account in determining the
credit under this section.’’.
(b) TECHNICAL AMENDMENT.—Subsection (a) of
section 1016 of such Code is amended by striking ‘‘and’’
at the end of paragraph (26), by striking the period at
the end of paragraph (27) and inserting ‘‘; and’’, and by
adding at the end the following new paragraph:
‘‘(28) to the extent provided in section 30B(e),
in the case of amounts with respect to which a credit
has been allowed under section 30B.’’
(c) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of sections
for subpart B of part IV of subchapter A of chapter 1
of such Code is amended by adding at the end the fol-
lowing new item:
‘‘Sec. 30B. Teleworking credit.’’
(d) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by
this section shall apply to amounts paid or incurred after
the date of the enactment of this Act, in taxable years
ending after such date.
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