Epidemic Tax Credit Act of 2020

I 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. R. 6337 To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to create an epidemic tax credit, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES MARCH 23, 2020 Mr. BUDD 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 create an epidemic tax credit, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Epidemic Tax Credit 4 Act of 2020’’. 5 SEC. 2. EPIDEMIC TAX CREDIT. 6 (a) IN GENERAL.—Subpart D of part IV of sub- 7 chapter A of chapter 1 of the Internal Revenue Code of 8 1986 is amended by adding at the end the following new 9 section: 10 VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:02 Apr 08, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6337.IH H6337 PAMTMANN on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 6337 IH ‘‘SEC. 45U. EPIDEMIC CREDIT. 1 ‘‘(a) GENERAL RULE.—For purposes of section 38, 2 the epidemic credit for any taxable year is an amount 3 equal to 90 percent of the amount of qualifying wages paid 4 by a qualified employer to qualifying employees. 5 ‘‘(b) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this section— 6 ‘‘(1) QUALIFYING WAGES.—The term ‘quali- 7 fying wages’ means wages paid to a qualifying em- 8 ployee who— 9 ‘‘(A) is on leave, 10 ‘‘(B) does not come to the workplace, and 11 ‘‘(C) performs no substantial work for the 12 employer. 13 ‘‘(2) QUALIFIED EMPLOYER.—The term ‘quali- 14 fied employer’ means any employer that is not a gov- 15 ernment employer. 16 ‘‘(3) GOVERNMENT EMPLOYER.—The term 17 ‘government employer’ means— 18 ‘‘(A) the Federal Government, 19 ‘‘(B) any State government, 20 ‘‘(C) any government of a possession or 21 territory of the United States, 22 ‘‘(D) the Government of the District of Co- 23 lumbia, 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:02 Apr 08, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6337.IH H6337 PAMTMANN on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 6337 IH ‘‘(E) the government of any county, city, 1 town, township, parish, village, or other general 2 purpose political subdivision of a State, 3 ‘‘(F) any Indian Tribal Government (as 4 defined in section 7701(a)(40)), 5 ‘‘(G) any foreign government, or 6 ‘‘(H) any international organization (as de- 7 fined in section 7701(a)(18)). 8 ‘‘(4) TAX-EXEMPT EMPLOYER.—The term ‘tax- 9 exempt employer’ means— 10 ‘‘(A) any employer that is exempt from 11 taxation pursuant to subchapter F of chapter 1 12 of subtitle A, or 13 ‘‘(B) any other employer designated by the 14 Secretary as a tax-exempt employer for pur- 15 poses of this section. 16 ‘‘(5) QUALIFYING EMPLOYEE.—The term 17 ‘qualifying employee’ means a person who— 18 ‘‘(A) has been an employee of the qualified 19 employer for at least one pay period preceding 20 the designation of the epidemic area where the 21 person’s workplace is located, 22 ‘‘(B) normally performs substantially all of 23 the person’s work in a designated epidemic 24 area, 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:02 Apr 08, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6337.IH H6337 PAMTMANN on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 6337 IH ‘‘(C) is not a part-time employee (as de- 1 fined in section 4980E(d)(4)(B)), and 2 ‘‘(D) cannot, given the nature of the per- 3 son’s employment, reasonably be expected to 4 telecommute. 5 ‘‘(6) EPIDEMIC AREA.—The term ‘epidemic 6 area’ means any county designated as an epidemic 7 area by the Director of the Centers for Disease Con- 8 trol and Prevention. 9 ‘‘(7) COUNTY.—For purposes of paragraph (6), 10 the term ‘county’ means— 11 ‘‘(A) any county or parish that is a sub- 12 division of a State, 13 ‘‘(B) a city or other political subdivision 14 that is functionally equivalent to a county or 15 parish, 16 ‘‘(C) a possession or territory of the 17 United States, or 18 ‘‘(D) the District of Columbia. 19 ‘‘(c) LIMITATION.— 20 ‘‘(1) MAXIMUM WEEKLY WAGE CREDITABLE.— 21 The amount of qualifying wages shall not exceed 22 $2,000 with respect to any calendar week for any 23 qualifying employee. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:02 Apr 08, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6337.IH H6337 PAMTMANN on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 6337 IH ‘‘(2) MAXIMUM LEAVE PERIOD CREDITABLE.— 1 The amount of leave that may be taken into account 2 with respect to any qualifying employee under sub- 3 section (a) for any taxable year shall not exceed 8 4 calendar weeks. 5 ‘‘(d) EPIDEMIC AREA DESIGNATION.— 6 ‘‘(1) DESIGNATION.—The Director of the Cen- 7 ters for Disease Control and Prevention may des- 8 ignate as an epidemic area any county within the 9 United States provided that— 10 ‘‘(A) a public health emergency has been 11 declared pursuant to section 247d of title 42, 12 United States Code, 13 ‘‘(B) the Director finds that a substantial 14 number of cases of a communicable disease 15 have occurred in the United States and that 16 such communicable disease is reasonably ex- 17 pected to be life-threatening to at least one-half 18 of 1 percent of those that contract the disease, 19 ‘‘(C) the Director finds that risk of the in- 20 troduction, transmission, or spread of such 21 communicable disease will be substantially re- 22 duced by encouraging people not to come to 23 work within the county, and 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:02 Apr 08, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6337.IH H6337 PAMTMANN on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 6337 IH ‘‘(D) the Director finds that a person or 1 persons have been quarantined or otherwise iso- 2 lated either within the county to be designated 3 as an epidemic area, or within a county geo- 4 graphically adjacent to the county to be des- 5 ignated as an epidemic area, for the purpose of 6 preventing the introduction, transmission, or 7 spread of such communicable disease. 8 ‘‘(2) EPIDEMIC AREA LIST.—So long as there 9 are any designated epidemic areas, the Director shall 10 maintain a list of designated epidemic areas which 11 shall provide the name of each designated epidemic 12 area, the date on which the designation was made 13 for each county and, if removed from the list, the 14 date a county was removed from the list of des- 15 ignated epidemic areas. The epidemic area list shall 16 be published at least weekly in the Federal Register. 17 The epidemic area list shall be maintained and up- 18 dated daily on the website of the Centers for Disease 19 Control and Prevention. 20 ‘‘(3) LIMITATION.—A county shall maintain its 21 status as a declared epidemic area until the earlier 22 of— 23 ‘‘(A) a finding by the Director that the 24 county is no longer an epidemic area; or 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:02 Apr 08, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6337.IH H6337 PAMTMANN on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 7 •HR 6337 IH ‘‘(B) 90 days after the declaration of the 1 county as an epidemic area. 2 ‘‘(e) SPECIAL RULE FOR TAX-EXEMPT EMPLOY- 3 ERS.— 4 ‘‘(1) TAX-EXEMPT EMPLOYERS ELIGIBLE.— 5 Tax-exempt employers are eligible to receive the 6 credit provided by this section notwithstanding their 7 tax-exemption. 8 ‘‘(2) APPLICATION REQUIRED.—Application for 9 payment of the epidemic credit to a tax-exempt em- 10 ployer shall be in such form and contain such infor- 11 mation as the Secretary shall prescribe. Any claim 12 for credit under this subsection by a tax-exempt em- 13 ployer shall be filed within 6 months after the date 14 that the last qualifying wages were paid. 15 ‘‘(3) PAYMENT.—On proof satisfactory to the 16 Secretary that the epidemic credit is due to a tax- 17 exempt employer, the Secretary shall make payment 18 to the tax-exempt employer. 19 ‘‘(f) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by 20 this section shall apply to wages paid on or after the date 21 of the enactment of this Act. This section shall not apply 22 to wages paid after December 31, 2020.’’. 23 (b) GENERAL BUSINESS CREDIT.—Subsection (b) of 24 section 38 is amended by striking the period at the end 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:02 Apr 08, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6337.IH H6337 PAMTMANN on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 8 •HR 6337 IH thereof, by striking the word ‘‘plus’’ in paragraph 32 and 1 by adding at the end thereof: ‘‘plus 2 ‘‘(34) the epidemic credit determined under sec- 3 tion 45U.’’. 4 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:02 Apr 08, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H6337.IH H6337 PAMTMANN on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS