Corporate Responsibility and Taxpayer Protection Act of 2020

I 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. R. 8669 To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to impose a tax on employers whose employees receive certain Federal benefits. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OCTOBER 23, 2020 Mr. KHANNA introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com- mittee on Ways and Means, and in addition to the Committee on Edu- cation and Labor, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned A BILL To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to impose a tax on employers whose employees receive certain Fed- eral benefits. 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 ‘‘Corporate Responsi- 4 bility and Taxpayer Protection Act of 2020’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:24 Nov 07, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8669.IH H8669 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 8669 IH SEC. 2. TAX ON EMPLOYERS WITH EMPLOYEES RECEIVING 1 CERTAIN FEDERAL BENEFITS. 2 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Internal Revenue Code of 3 1986 is amended by inserting after chapter 36 the fol- 4 lowing new chapter: 5 ‘‘CHAPTER 37—EMPLOYERS WITH EM- 6 PLOYEES RECEIVING CERTAIN FED- 7 ERAL BENEFITS 8 ‘‘SEC. 4501. EMPLOYERS WITH EMPLOYEES RECEIVING 9 CERTAIN FEDERAL BENEFITS. 10 ‘‘(a) IMPOSITION OF CORPORATE WELFARE TAX.— 11 There is hereby imposed on each large employer a tax 12 equal to 100 percent of the qualified employee benefits 13 with respect to such employer for the taxable year. 14 ‘‘(b) LARGE EMPLOYER.— 15 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—For purposes of this sec- 16 tion, the term ‘large employer’ means, with respect 17 to a calendar year, an employer who employed an 18 average of at least 500 full-time employees on busi- 19 ness days during the preceding calendar year. 20 ‘‘(2) RULES FOR DETERMINING EMPLOYER 21 SIZE.—For purposes of this subsection— 22 ‘‘(A) APPLICATION OF AGGREGATION RULE 23 FOR EMPLOYERS.—All persons treated as a sin- 24 gle employer under subsection (b), (c), (m), or 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:24 Nov 07, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8669.IH H8669 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 8669 IH (o) of section 414 of the Internal Revenue Code 1 of 1986 shall be treated as 1 employer. 2 ‘‘(B) FULL-TIME EQUIVALENTS TREATED 3 AS FULL-TIME EMPLOYEES.—Solely for pur- 4 poses of determining whether an employer is a 5 large employer under this paragraph, an em- 6 ployer shall, in addition to the number of full- 7 time employees for any month otherwise deter- 8 mined, include for such month a number of full- 9 time employees determined by dividing the ag- 10 gregate number of hours of service of employees 11 who are not full-time employees for the month 12 by 120. 13 ‘‘(C) EMPLOYERS NOT IN EXISTENCE IN 14 PRECEDING YEAR.—In the case of an employer 15 which was not in existence throughout the pre- 16 ceding calendar year, the determination of 17 whether such employer is a large employer shall 18 be based on the average number of employees 19 that it is reasonably expected such employer 20 will employ on business days in the current cal- 21 endar year. 22 ‘‘(D) PREDECESSORS.—Any reference in 23 this subsection to an employer shall include a 24 reference to any predecessor of such employer. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:24 Nov 07, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8669.IH H8669 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 8669 IH ‘‘(3) CERTAIN EMPLOYERS EXEMPT.—For pur- 1 poses of paragraph (1), an employer shall not be 2 considered a large employer if— 3 ‘‘(A) such employer pays all employees a 4 wage of $15 per hour (or the salaried equiva- 5 lent) or more, or 6 ‘‘(B) such employer holds less than $100 7 million in assets. 8 ‘‘(c) QUALIFIED EMPLOYEE BENEFITS.—For pur- 9 poses of this section: 10 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘qualified em- 11 ployee benefits’ means, with respect to a person for 12 a taxable year, the sum the qualified Federal bene- 13 fits for which individuals who are employees of such 14 person for such taxable year. 15 ‘‘(2) QUALIFIED FEDERAL BENEFITS.—The 16 term ‘qualified Federal benefits’ means, with respect 17 to an individual, the following: 18 ‘‘(A) The dollar value of supplemental nu- 19 trition assistance for which the household (as 20 defined in section 3(m) of the Food and Nutri- 21 tion Act of 2008) that includes such individual 22 is eligible. 23 ‘‘(B) The dollar value of meals that such 24 individual or dependents of such individual are 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:24 Nov 07, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8669.IH H8669 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 8669 IH eligible for under the school lunch program 1 under the Richard B. Russell National School 2 Lunch Act and the school breakfast program 3 under section 4 of the Child Nutrition Act of 4 1966. 5 ‘‘(C) The aggregate amount of the monthly 6 assistance payments for rental of a dwelling 7 unit that the household of such individual was 8 a member of is eligible to have made of its be- 9 half pursuant to section 8 of the United States 10 Housing Act of 1937. 11 ‘‘(D) The amount of payments made under 12 section 1903 of the Social Security Act with re- 13 spect to expenditures made by a State under a 14 State Medicaid plan under title XIX of such 15 Act (or a waiver of such plan) for medical as- 16 sistance for such individual or for dependents of 17 such individual. 18 ‘‘(d) EMPLOYEE.—For purposes of this section, the 19 term ‘employee’ means— 20 ‘‘(1) any full-time or part-time employee, 21 ‘‘(2) any individual who is a full-time or part- 22 time independent contractor (including any employee 23 of such independent contractor) and provides serv- 24 ices to the employer, unless— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:24 Nov 07, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8669.IH H8669 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 8669 IH ‘‘(A) the individual is free from control and 1 direction in connection with the performance of 2 the service, both under the contract for the per- 3 formance of service and in fact, 4 ‘‘(B) the service is performed outside the 5 usual course of the business of the employer, 6 and 7 ‘‘(C) the individual is customarily engaged 8 in an independently established trade, occupa- 9 tion, professor or business of the same nature 10 as that involved in the service performed, and 11 ‘‘(3) any individual who is a full-time or part- 12 time joint employee, provided that the employer pos- 13 sess, reserves, or exercises sufficient direct or indi- 14 rect control over the essential terms and conditions 15 of employment of such employee. 16 ‘‘(e) REGULATIONS.—The Secretary, in consultation 17 with the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Hous- 18 ing and Urban Development, and the Administrator of the 19 Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, shall pre- 20 scribe such regulations as may be necessary or appropriate 21 to carry out this chapter.’’. 22 (b) CLERICAL AMENDMENTS.—The table of chapters 23 for subtitle D of such Code is amended by inserting after 24 the item relating to chapter 36 the following new item: 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:24 Nov 07, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8669.IH H8669 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 7 •HR 8669 IH ‘‘CHAPTER 37—EMPLOYERS WITH EMPLOYEES RECEIVING CERTAIN FEDERAL BENEFITS’’. (c) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 1 this Act apply with respect to taxable years beginning 2 after December 31, 2020. 3 SEC. 3. UNLAWFUL EMPLOYMENT PRACTICES RELATED TO 4 FEDERAL BENEFITS OF APPLICANTS. 5 (a) IN GENERAL.—It shall be an unlawful employ- 6 ment practice for any large employer (as defined in section 7 4501(b) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986) to make 8 inquiries of an applicant for employment, or otherwise 9 seek information about such an applicant (including 10 through the use of any form or application), relating to 11 whether such applicant receives Federal benefits. 12 (b) ENFORCEMENT.—A violation of subsection (a) 13 shall be treated as, and enforced by the Secretary of Labor 14 in the same manner as, a violation of section 6 of the Fair 15 Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 206), except that 16 for purposes of section 15(b) of such Act (29 U.S.C. 17 215(b)), the employer shall be liable to the individual al- 18 leging the violation for any lost wages due the individual 19 and an additional equal amount of liquidated damages. 20 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:24 Nov 07, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H8669.IH H8669 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS