I
106TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 3819
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 1, 2000
Mr. WOLF (for himself, Mr. DAVIS of Virginia, and Mrs. MORELLA) 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 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.—