I 
111TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 4147 
To provide for rollover treatment to traditional IRAs of amounts received 
in airline carrier bankruptcy. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
NOVEMBER 19, 2009 
Mr. LEWIS of Georgia (for himself and Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky) introduced 
the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means 
A BILL 
To provide for rollover treatment to traditional IRAs of 
amounts received in airline carrier bankruptcy. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. ROLLOVER OF AMOUNTS RECEIVED IN AIRLINE 
CARRIER BANKRUPTCY. 
(a) GENERAL RULES.— 
(1) 
ROLLOVER
OF
AIRLINE
PAYMENT 
AMOUNT.—If a qualified airline employee receives 
any airline payment amount and transfers any por-
tion of such amount to a traditional IRA within 180 
days of receipt of such amount (or, if later, within 
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180 days of the date of the enactment of this Act), 
then such amount (to the extent so transferred) 
shall be treated as a rollover contribution described 
in section 402(c) of the Internal Revenue Code of 
1986. A qualified airline employee making such a 
transfer may exclude from gross income the amount 
transferred, in the taxable year in which the airline 
payment amount was paid to the qualified airline 
employee by the commercial passenger airline car-
rier. 
(2) TRANSFER OF AMOUNTS ATTRIBUTABLE TO 
AIRLINE PAYMENT AMOUNT FOLLOWING ROLLOVER 
TO
ROTH
IRA.—A qualified airline employee who 
made a rollover of an airline payment amount to a 
Roth IRA pursuant to section 125 of the Worker, 
Retiree, and Employer Recovery Act of 2008, may 
transfer to a traditional IRA all or any part of the 
Roth IRA attributable to such rollover, and the 
transfer to the traditional IRA will be deemed to 
have been made at the time of the rollover to the 
Roth IRA, if such transfer is made within 180 days 
of the date of the enactment of this Act. A qualified 
airline employee making such a transfer may exclude 
from gross income the airline payment amount pre-
viously rolled over to the Roth IRA, to the extent an 
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amount attributable to the previous rollover was 
transferred to a traditional IRA, in the taxable year 
in which the airline payment amount was paid to the 
qualified airline employee by the commercial pas-
senger airline carrier. 
(3) EXTENSION OF TIME TO FILE CLAIM FOR 
REFUND.—A qualified airline employee who excludes 
an amount from gross income in a prior taxable year 
under paragraph (1) or (2) may reflect such exclu-
sion in a claim for refund filed within the period of 
limitation under section 6511(a) (or, if later, April 
15, 2011). 
(b) TREATMENT OF AIRLINE PAYMENT AMOUNTS 
AND TRANSFERS FOR EMPLOYMENT TAXES.—For pur-
poses of chapter 21 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 
and section 209 of the Social Security Act, an airline pay-
ment amount shall not fail to be treated as a payment 
of wages by the commercial passenger airline carrier to 
the qualified airline employee in the taxable year of pay-
ment because such amount is excluded from the qualified 
airline employee’s gross income under subsection (a). 
(c) DEFINITIONS AND SPECIAL RULES.—For pur-
poses of this section— 
(1) AIRLINE PAYMENT AMOUNT.— 
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(A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘‘airline pay-
ment amount’’ means any payment of any 
money or other property which is payable by a 
commercial passenger airline carrier to a quali-
fied airline employee— 
(i) under the approval of an order of 
a Federal bankruptcy court in a case filed 
after September 11, 2001, and before Jan-
uary 1, 2007, and 
(ii) in respect of the qualified airline 
employee’s interest in a bankruptcy claim 
against the carrier, any note of the carrier 
(or amount paid in lieu of a note being 
issued), or any other fixed obligation of the 
carrier to pay a lump sum amount. 
The amount of such payment shall be deter-
mined without regard to any requirement to de-
duct and withhold tax from such payment 
under sections 3102(a) and 3402(a). 
(B) 
EXCEPTION.—An 
airline 
payment 
amount shall not include any amount payable 
on the basis of the carrier’s future earnings or 
profits. 
(2) QUALIFIED AIRLINE EMPLOYEE.—The term 
‘‘qualified airline employee’’ means an employee or 
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former employee of a commercial passenger airline 
carrier who was a participant in a defined benefit 
plan maintained by the carrier which— 
(A) is a plan described in section 401(a) of 
the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 which in-
cludes a trust exempt from tax under section 
501(a) of such Code, and 
(B) was terminated or became subject to 
the restrictions contained in paragraphs (2) and 
(3) of section 402(b) of the Pension Protection 
Act of 2006. 
(3) TRADITIONAL IRA.—The term ‘‘traditional 
IRA’’ means an individual retirement plan (as de-
fined in section 7701(a)(37) of the Internal Revenue 
Code of 1986) which is not a Roth IRA. 
(4) ROTH IRA.—The term ‘‘Roth IRA’’ has the 
meaning given such term by section 408A(b) of such 
Code. 
(d) SURVIVING SPOUSE.—If a qualified airline em-
ployee died after receiving an airline payment amount, or 
if an airline payment amount was paid to the surviving 
spouse of a qualified airline employee in respect of the 
qualified airline employee, the surviving spouse of the 
qualified airline employee may take all actions permitted 
under section 125 of the Worker, Retiree and Employer 
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Recovery Act of 2008, or under this section, to the same 
extent that the qualified airline employee could have done 
had the qualified airline employee survived. 
(e) EFFECTIVE DATE.—This section shall apply to 
transfers made after the date of the enactment of this Act 
with respect to airline payment amounts paid before, on, 
or after such date. 
Æ 
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