I 
113TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 3298 
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to allow individuals a deduction 
for amounts contributed to disaster savings accounts to help defray 
the cost of preparing their homes to withstand a disaster. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
OCTOBER 16, 2013 
Mr. ROSS 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 indi-
viduals a deduction for amounts contributed to disaster 
savings accounts to help defray the cost of preparing 
their homes to withstand a disaster. 
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 ‘‘Disaster Savings Ac-
counts Act of 2013’’. 
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SEC. 2. DEDUCTION FOR CONTRIBUTIONS TO DISASTER 
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 
by redesignating section 224 as section 225 and by insert-
ing after section 223 the following new section: 
‘‘SEC. 224. DISASTER SAVINGS ACCOUNTS. 
‘‘(a) DEDUCTION ALLOWED.—In the case of an 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 a disaster 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 the 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— 
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‘‘(1) such individual owned and used any resi-
dence in the United States at any time during the 
taxable year, and 
‘‘(2) while so owned and used, such residence 
was insured under a policy of a type normally re-
quired by a lender holding a mortgage on the resi-
dence. 
‘‘(d) DISASTER SAVINGS ACCOUNT.—For purposes of 
this section— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘disaster savings 
account’ means a trust created or organized in the 
United States as a disaster savings account exclu-
sively for the purpose of paying the disaster mitiga-
tion expenses of the account beneficiary, but only if 
the written governing instrument creating the trust 
meets the following requirements: 
‘‘(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). 
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‘‘(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. 
‘‘(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) 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) Safe rooms. 
‘‘(B) Opening protection, including impact 
and wind resistant windows, exterior doors, and 
garage doors. 
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‘‘(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, lightning, power outage, tor-
nado and wildfire) and other natural disasters. 
‘‘(3) ACCOUNT
BENEFICIARY.—The term ‘ac-
count beneficiary’ means the individual on whose be-
half the disaster savings account was established. 
‘‘(e) TREATMENT OF ACCOUNT.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—A disaster savings account 
is exempt from taxation under this subtitle unless 
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such account has ceased to be a disaster savings ac-
count. Notwithstanding the preceding sentence, any 
such account is subject to the taxes imposed by sec-
tion 511 (relating to imposition of tax on unrelated 
business income of charitable, etc., organizations). 
‘‘(2) ACCOUNT TERMINATIONS.—Rules similar 
to the rules of paragraphs (2) and (4) of section 
408(e) shall apply to disaster savings accounts, and 
any amount treated as distributed under such rules 
shall be treated as not used to pay disaster mitiga-
tion expenses. 
‘‘(f) TAX TREATMENT OF DISTRIBUTIONS.— 
‘‘(1) AMOUNTS
USED
FOR
DISASTER
MITIGA-
TION EXPENSES.—Any amount paid or distributed 
out of a disaster savings account which is used ex-
clusively to pay disaster mitigation expenses of any 
account beneficiary shall not be includible in gross 
income. 
‘‘(2) INCLUSION OF AMOUNTS NOT USED FOR 
DISASTER
MITIGATION
EXPENSES.—Any amount 
paid or distributed out of a disaster savings account 
which is not used exclusively to pay the disaster 
mitigation expenses of the account beneficiary shall 
be included in the gross income of such beneficiary. 
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‘‘(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 disaster savings account of an individual, 
paragraph (2) shall not apply to distributions 
from the disaster savings accounts of such indi-
vidual (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. 
‘‘(B) EXCESS
CONTRIBUTION.—For pur-
poses of subparagraph (A), the term ‘excess 
contribution’ means any contribution (other 
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than a rollover contribution described in para-
graph (5)) which is not deductible under this 
section. 
‘‘(4) ADDITIONAL TAX ON DISTRIBUTIONS NOT 
USED FOR DISASTER MITIGATION EXPENSES.— 
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The tax imposed by 
this chapter on the account beneficiary for any 
taxable year in which there is a payment or dis-
tribution from a disaster savings account of 
such beneficiary which is includible in gross in-
come under paragraph (2) shall be increased by 
20 percent of the amount which is so includible. 
‘‘(B) EXCEPTION
FOR
DISABILITY
OR 
DEATH.—Subparagraph (A) shall not apply if 
the payment or distribution is made after the 
account beneficiary becomes disabled within the 
meaning of section 72(m)(7) or dies. 
‘‘(5) ROLLOVER CONTRIBUTION.—An amount is 
described in this paragraph as a rollover contribu-
tion if it meets the requirements of subparagraphs 
(A) and (B). 
‘‘(A) IN
GENERAL.—Paragraph (2) shall 
not apply to any amount paid or distributed 
from a disaster savings account to the account 
beneficiary to the extent the amount received is 
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paid into a disaster savings account for the ben-
efit of such beneficiary not later than the 60th 
day after the day on which the beneficiary re-
ceives the payment or distribution. 
‘‘(B) LIMITATION.—This paragraph shall 
not apply to any amount described in subpara-
graph (A) received by an individual from a dis-
aster savings account if, at any time during the 
1-year period ending on the day of such receipt, 
such individual received any other amount de-
scribed in subparagraph (A) from a disaster 
savings account which was not includible in the 
individual’s gross income because of the appli-
cation of this paragraph. 
‘‘(g) COST-OF-LIVING ADJUSTMENT.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The $5,000 amount in sub-
section (b) shall be increased by an amount equal 
to— 
‘‘(A) such dollar amount, multiplied by 
‘‘(B) the cost-of-living adjustment deter-
mined under section 1(f)(3) for the calendar 
year in which such taxable year begins deter-
mined by substituting ‘calendar year 2012’ for 
‘calendar year 1992’ in subparagraph (B) 
thereof. 
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‘‘(2) ROUNDING.—If any increase under para-
graph (1) is not a multiple of $50, such increase 
shall be rounded to the nearest multiple of $50. 
‘‘(h) SPECIAL RULES.— 
‘‘(1) DENIAL
OF
DEDUCTION
TO
DEPEND-
ENTS.—No deduction shall be allowed under this 
section to any individual with respect to whom a de-
duction under section 151 is allowable to another 
taxpayer for a taxable year beginning in the cal-
endar year in which such individual’s taxable year 
begins. 
‘‘(2) TAXABLE YEAR MUST BE FULL TAXABLE 
YEAR.—Except in the case of a taxable year closed 
by reason of the death of the taxpayer, no deduction 
shall be allowed under this section in the case of a 
taxable year covering a period of less than 12 
months. 
‘‘(3) CERTAIN RULES TO APPLY.—Rules similar 
to the following rules shall apply for purposes of this 
section: 
‘‘(A) Section 219(d)(2) (relating to no de-
duction for rollovers). 
‘‘(B) Section 219(f)(3) (relating to time 
when contributions deemed made). 
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‘‘(C) Section 219(f)(5) (relating to em-
ployer payments). 
‘‘(D) Section 408(g) (relating to commu-
nity property laws). 
‘‘(E) Section 408(h) (relating to custodial 
accounts). 
‘‘(F) Section 224(f)(7) (relating to transfer 
of account incident to divorce). 
‘‘(G) Section 224(f)(8) (relating to treat-
ment after death of account beneficiary). 
‘‘(i) REPORTS.—The Secretary may require the trust-
ee of a disaster savings account to make such reports re-
garding such account to the Secretary and to the account 
beneficiary with respect to contributions, distributions, the 
return of excess contributions, and such other matters as 
the Secretary determines appropriate.’’. 
(b) DEDUCTION ALLOWED WHETHER OR NOT INDI-
VIDUAL ITEMIZES OTHER DEDUCTIONS.—Subsection (a) 
of section 62 of such Code is amended by inserting after 
paragraph (21) the following new paragraph: 
‘‘(22) DISASTER SAVINGS ACCOUNTS.—The de-
duction allowed by section 224.’’. 
(c) TAX ON EXCESS CONTRIBUTIONS.—Section 4973 
of such Code (relating to tax on excess contributions to 
certain tax-favored accounts and annuities) is amended— 
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‘‘(i) the maximum amount allowable 
as a deduction under section 224(b) for 
the taxable year, over 
‘‘(ii) the amount contributed to the 
accounts for the taxable year. 
For purposes of this subsection, any contribu-
tion which is distributed out of the disaster sav-
ings account in a distribution to which section 
224(f)(3) applies shall be treated as an amount 
not contributed.’’. 
(d) FAILURE TO PROVIDE REPORTS ON DISASTER 
SAVINGS ACCOUNTS.—Paragraph (2) of section 6693(a) 
of such Code (relating to reports) is amended by redesig-
nating subparagraphs (D) and (E) as subparagraphs (E) 
and (F), respectively, and by inserting after subparagraph 
(C) the following new subparagraph: 
‘‘(D) section 224(i) (relating to disaster 
savings accounts),’’. 
(e) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of sections 
for part VII of subchapter B of chapter 1 of such Code 
is amended by striking the last item and inserting the fol-
lowing: 
‘‘Sec. 224. Disaster savings accounts.’’ 
‘‘Sec. 225. Cross reference.’’. 
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(f) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 
this section shall apply to taxable years beginning after 
the date of the enactment of this Act. 
Æ 
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