I 
117TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1449 
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide emergency savings 
accounts for individuals. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 1, 2021 
Mr. CLOUD (for himself, Mrs. HINSON, Mr. LAMALFA, and Mr. OWENS) in-
troduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ways 
and Means 
A BILL 
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide 
emergency savings accounts for individuals. 
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 ‘‘Emergency Savings 
Accounts Act of 2021’’. 
SEC. 2. DEDUCTION FOR CONTRIBUTIONS TO EMERGENCY 
SAVINGS ACCOUNTS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Part VII of subchapter B of chap-
ter 1 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (relating to 
additional itemized deductions for individuals) is amended 
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by redesignating section 224 as section 225 and by insert-
ing after section 223 the following new section: 
‘‘SEC. 224. EMERGENCY SAVINGS ACCOUNTS. 
‘‘(a) DEDUCTION ALLOWED.—In the case of a eligi-
ble individual, there shall be allowed as a deduction for 
the taxable year an amount equal to the aggregate amount 
paid during such taxable year by or on behalf of such indi-
vidual to an emergency savings account of such individual. 
‘‘(b) LIMITATION.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The amount allowed as a 
deduction under subsection (a) to an individual for 
the taxable year shall not exceed $5,000. 
‘‘(2) PARTIAL YEAR OF ELIGIBILITY.—In the 
case of an individual who is an eligible individual for 
only a portion of the taxable year, the limitation 
under paragraph (1) shall be same proportion of 
$5,000 as such portion bears to the entire taxable 
year. 
‘‘(c) ELIGIBLE INDIVIDUAL.—For purposes of this 
section, the term ‘eligible individual’ means any individual 
if such individual occupied any residence in the United 
States at any time during the taxable year. 
‘‘(d) EMERGENCY SAVINGS ACCOUNT.—For purposes 
of this section— 
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‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘emergency sav-
ings account’ means a trust created or organized in 
the United States as an emergency savings account 
exclusively for the purpose of paying the qualified 
disaster and public health emergency expenses of the 
account beneficiary, but only if the written governing 
instrument creating the trust meets the following re-
quirements: 
‘‘(A) Except in the case of a rollover con-
tribution described in subsection (f)(5), no con-
tribution will be accepted— 
‘‘(i) unless it is in cash, or 
‘‘(ii) to the extent such contribution, 
when added to previous contributions to 
the trust for the calendar year, exceeds the 
dollar limitation in effect under subsection 
(b). 
‘‘(B) The trustee is a bank (as defined in 
section 408(n)), an insurance company (as de-
fined in section 816), or another person who 
demonstrates to the satisfaction of the Sec-
retary that the manner in which such person 
will administer the trust will be consistent with 
the requirements of this section. 
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‘‘(C) No part of the trust assets will be in-
vested in life insurance contracts. 
‘‘(D) The assets of the trust will not be 
commingled with other property except in a 
common trust fund or common investment 
fund. 
‘‘(E) The interest of an individual in the 
balance in his account is nonforfeitable. 
‘‘(2) 
QUALIFIED
DISASTER
AND
PUBLIC 
HEALTH EMERGENCY EXPENSES.—The term ‘quali-
fied disaster and public health emergency expenses’ 
means— 
‘‘(A) disaster mitigation expenses, 
‘‘(B) disaster recovery expenses, 
‘‘(C) public health emergency expenses, 
and 
‘‘(D) unemployment related expenses. 
‘‘(3) DISASTER
MITIGATION
EXPENSES.—The 
term ‘disaster mitigation expenses’ means expenses 
for any of the following with respect to the residence 
referred to in subsection (c): 
‘‘(A) Tornado safe rooms manufactured or 
constructed in accordance with FEMA 320 or 
FEMA 361 guidance or tornado shelters manu-
factured or constructed in accordance with the 
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National 
Storm 
Shelter/International 
Code 
Council 500 standard. 
‘‘(B) Opening protection, including impact 
and wind resistant windows, exterior doors, and 
garage doors. 
‘‘(C) Reinforcement of roof-to-wall and 
floor-to-wall connections for wind or seismic ac-
tivity. 
‘‘(D) Roof covering for impact, fire, or 
high wind resistance. 
‘‘(E) Cripple and shear walls to resist seis-
mic activity. 
‘‘(F) Flood resistant building materials. 
‘‘(G) Elevating structures and utilities 
above base flood elevation. 
‘‘(H) Fire resistant exterior wall assem-
blies/systems. 
‘‘(I) Lightning protection systems. 
‘‘(J) Whole home standby generators. 
‘‘(K) Any activity specified by the Sec-
retary as appropriate to mitigate the risks of 
future hazards (including earthquake, flood, 
hail, hurricane, sinkhole, lightning, power out-
age, tornado, and wildfire) and other natural 
disasters. 
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‘‘(4) DISASTER
RECOVERY
EXPENSES.—The 
term ‘disaster recovery expenses’ means with respect 
to the residence referred to in subsection (c) any ex-
pense incurred to replace or repair disaster-related 
uninsured personal casualty personal losses totaling 
$1,000 or greater. 
‘‘(5) DISASTER-RELATED
UNINSURED
PER-
SONAL CASUALTY LOSS.—The term ‘disaster-related 
uninsured personal casualty loss’ means a personal 
casualty loss (as defined in section 165(h)(3)(B), de-
termined without regard to the second sentence 
thereof) attributable to a State or federally declared 
disaster for which a deduction is allowable under 
section 165 (without regard to subsection (h)(1)). 
‘‘(6) FEDERALLY
DECLARED
DISASTER.—The 
term ‘federally declared disaster’ has the meaning 
given such term by section 165(i)(5). 
‘‘(7) 
PUBLIC
HEALTH
EMERGENCY
EX-
PENSES.—The term ‘public health emergency ex-
penses’ means expenses for any of the following with 
respect to an individual referred to in subsection (c) 
if paid or incurred while a public health emergency 
declaration is in effect and while such individual is 
unemployed or has their employment status reduced 
from full-time status: 
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‘‘(A) Child care expenses. 
‘‘(B) Out-of-pocket health care costs, in-
cluding insurance premiums. 
‘‘(C) Housing expenses including mort-
gage, rent, or property taxes. 
‘‘(D) Utilities. 
‘‘(8) PUBLIC
HEALTH
EMERGENCY
DECLARA-
TION.—The term ‘public health emergency declara-
tion’ means any declaration of a public health emer-
gency by the Secretary of Health and Human Serv-
ices under section 319 of the Public Health Service 
Act (42 U.S.C. 247d). 
‘‘(9) UNEMPLOYMENT RELATED EXPENSES.— 
The term ‘unemployment related expenses’ means, in 
the case of an account beneficiary with any period 
of unemployment during the taxable year, any ex-
penses during such taxable year which, in the aggre-
gate, do not exceed $500. 
‘‘(10) ACCOUNT BENEFICIARY.—The term ‘ac-
count beneficiary’ means the individual on whose be-
half the emergency savings account was established. 
‘‘(e) TREATMENT OF ACCOUNT.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—An emergency savings ac-
count is exempt from taxation under this subtitle 
unless such account has ceased to be an emergency 
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savings account. Notwithstanding the preceding sen-
tence, any such account is subject to the taxes im-
posed by section 511 (relating to imposition of tax 
on unrelated business income of charitable, etc. or-
ganizations). 
‘‘(2) ACCOUNT TERMINATIONS.—Rules similar 
to the rules of paragraphs (2) and (4) of section 
408(e) shall apply to emergency savings accounts, 
and any amount treated as distributed under such 
rules shall be treated as not used to pay qualified 
disaster and public health emergency expenses. 
‘‘(f) TAX TREATMENT OF DISTRIBUTIONS.— 
‘‘(1) AMOUNTS USED FOR QUALIFIED DISASTER 
AND PUBLIC HEALTH EMERGENCY EXPENSES.—Any 
amount paid or distributed out of an emergency sav-
ings account which is used exclusively to pay quali-
fied disaster and public health emergency expenses 
of any account beneficiary shall not be includible in 
gross income. 
‘‘(2) INCLUSION OF AMOUNTS NOT USED FOR 
QUALIFIED DISASTER AND PUBLIC HEALTH EMER-
GENCY EXPENSES.—Any amount paid or distributed 
out of an emergency savings account which is not 
used exclusively to pay the qualified disaster and 
public health emergency expenses of the account 
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beneficiary shall be included in the gross income of 
such beneficiary. 
‘‘(3) EXCESS CONTRIBUTIONS RETURNED BE-
FORE DUE DATE OF RETURN.— 
‘‘(A) IN
GENERAL.—If any excess con-
tribution is contributed for a taxable year to 
any emergency savings account of an individual, 
paragraph (2) shall not apply to distributions 
from the emergency savings accounts of such 
individual (to the extent such distributions do 
not exceed the aggregate excess contributions to 
all such accounts of such individual for such 
year) if— 
‘‘(i) such distribution is received by 
the individual on or before the last day 
prescribed by law (including extensions of 
time) for filing such individual’s return for 
such taxable year, and 
‘‘(ii) such distribution is accompanied 
by the amount of net income attributable 
to such excess contribution. 
Any net income described in clause (ii) shall be 
included in the gross income of the individual 
for the taxable year in which it is received. 
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