[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 309 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
109th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 309
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide for the
disposition of unused health benefits in cafeteria plans and flexible
spending arrangements.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
February 8, 2005
Mr. DeMint (for himself, Mr. Salazar, and Mr. Ensign) introduced the
following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on
Finance
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide for the
disposition of unused health benefits in cafeteria plans and flexible
spending arrangements.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. DISPOSITION OF UNUSED HEALTH BENEFITS IN CAFETERIA PLANS AND
FLEXIBLE SPENDING ARRANGEMENTS.
(a) In General.--Section 125 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986
(relating to cafeteria plans) is amended by redesignating subsections
(h) and (i) as subsections (i) and (j), respectively, and by inserting
after subsection (g) the following:
``(h) Contributions of Certain Unused Health Benefits.--
``(1) In general.--For purposes of this title, a plan or
other arrangement shall not fail to be treated as a cafeteria
plan solely because qualified benefits under such plan include
a health flexible spending arrangement under which not more
than $500 of unused health benefits may be--
``(A) carried forward to the succeeding plan year
of such health flexible spending arrangement, or
``(B) to the extent permitted by section 106(d),
contributed by the employer to a health savings account
(as defined in section 223(d)) maintained for the
benefit of the employee.
``(2) Health flexible spending arrangement.--For purposes
of this subsection, the term `health flexible spending
arrangement' means a flexible spending arrangement (as defined
in section 106(c)) that is a qualified benefit and only permits
reimbursement for expenses for medical care (as defined in
section 213(d)(1), without regard to subparagraphs (C) and (D)
thereof).
``(3) Unused health benefits.--For purposes of this
subsection, with respect to an employee, the term `unused
health benefits' means the excess of--
``(A) the maximum amount of reimbursement allowable
to the employee for a plan year under a health flexible
spending arrangement, over
``(B) the actual amount of reimbursement for such
year under such arrangement.''.
(b) Effective Date.--The amendments made by subsection (a) shall
apply to taxable years beginning after December 31, 2004.
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