income) is amended by adding at the end the following
new subsection:
‘‘(h) UNPAID CHILD SUPPORT.—
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—For purposes of this chap-
ter, any unpaid child support of a delinquent debtor
for any taxable year shall be treated as amounts in-
cludible in gross income of the delinquent debtor for
the taxable year.
‘‘(2) DETERMINATION
OF
WHETHER
CHILD
SUPPORT IS UNPAID.—
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Child support shall be
treated as paid if such payment is recorded by
the State office of child support enforcement in
which the custodial parent is registered.
‘‘(B) TIMELY
MAILING
AS
TIMELY
PAY-
MENT.—A payment received by the State office
of child support enforcement in which the cus-
todial parent is registered after the last day of
the custodial parent’s taxable year shall be
treated for the purpose of this subsection as
paid on such day if the postmark date falls on
or before such day. The rules of section 7502(f)
and regulations issued thereunder shall apply
for purposes of this subparagraph.
‘‘(3) DEFINITIONS.—For the purposes of this
subsection—
‘‘(A) CHILD
SUPPORT.—The term ‘child
support’ means—
‘‘(i) any periodic payment of a fixed
amount, or
‘‘(ii) any payment of a medical edu-
cation expense, insurance premium, or
other similar item,
which is required to be paid to a custodial par-
ent by an individual under a support instru-
ment for the support of any qualifying child of
such individual. ‘Child support’ does not include
any amount which is described in section
408(a)(3) of the Social Security Act and which
has been assigned to a State.
‘‘(B) CUSTODIAL PARENT.—The term ‘cus-
todial parent’ means an individual who is enti-
tled to receive child support and who has reg-
istered with the appropriate State office of child
support enforcement charged with implementing
section 454 of the Social Security Act.
‘‘(C) DELINQUENT
DEBTOR.—The term
‘delinquent debtor’ means a taxpayer who owes
unpaid child support to a custodial parent.
‘‘(D) 
QUALIFYING
CHILD.—The 
term
‘qualifying child’ means a child of a custodial
parent with respect to whom a dependent de-
duction is allowable under section 151 for the
taxable year (or would be so allowable but for
paragraph (2) or (4) of section 152(e)).
‘‘(E) SUPPORT
INSTRUMENT.—The term
‘support instrument’ means—
‘‘(i) a decree of divorce or separate
maintenance or a written instrument inci-
dent to such a decree,
‘‘(ii) a written separation agreement,
or
‘‘(iii) a decree (not described in clause
(i)) of a court or administrative agency re-
quiring a parent to make payments for the
support or maintenance of 1 or more chil-
dren of such parent.
‘‘(F) UNPAID CHILD SUPPORT.—The term
‘unpaid child support’ means child support that
is payable for months during a custodial par-
ent’s taxable year and unpaid as of the last day
of such taxable year, provided that such unpaid
amount as of such day equals or exceeds one-
half of the total amount of child support due to
the custodial parent for such year.
‘‘(4) COORDINATION
WITH
OTHER
LAWS.—
Amounts treated as income by paragraph (1) shall
not be treated as income by reason of paragraph (1)
for the purposes of any provision of law which is not
an internal revenue law.’’.
SEC. 5. TAXPAYER INFORMATION REGARDING CHILD SUP-
PORT NOT BASIS FOR AUDIT.
A discrepancy between the tax returns of a custodial
parent and a delinquent debtor concerning whether a pay-
ment of child support has been made may not be used
or relied upon by the Internal Revenue Service in any way
in selecting an individual’s tax return for a general audit.
SEC. 6. EFFECTIVE DATE; IMPLEMENTATION.
The amendments made by the Act shall apply to tax-
able years beginning after December 31, 2001. The Sec-
retary of the Treasury shall publish Form 1099–CS (or
such other form that may be prescribed to comply with
section 3(a)(6) of this Act) regulations, if any, that may
be deemed necessary to carry out the purposes of this Act,
not later than 90 days after the date of enactment of this
Act.
Æ