[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4372 Introduced in House (IH)]






108th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 4372

     To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide for the 
carryforward of $500 of unused benefits in cafeteria plans and flexible 
          spending arrangements for dependent care assistance.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 17, 2004

 Mr. Cantor (for himself and Mr. Kennedy of Minnesota) 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 provide for the 
carryforward of $500 of unused benefits in cafeteria plans and flexible 
          spending arrangements for dependent care assistance.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Working Families Assistance Act of 
2004''.

SEC. 2. CARRYFORWARD OF UNUSED BENEFITS IN CAFETERIA PLANS AND FLEXIBLE 
              SPENDING ARRANGEMENTS FOR DEPENDENT CARE ASSISTANCE.

    (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 new subsection:
    ``(h) Carryforward of Certain Unused Benefits for Dependent Care.--
            ``(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 dependent care flexible spending arrangement under which not 
        more than $500 of unused dependent care benefits may be carried 
        forward to the succeeding plan year of such dependent care 
        flexible spending arrangement.
            ``(2) Dependent care flexible spending arrangement.--For 
        purposes of this subsection, the term `dependent care 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 dependent care 
        assistance which meets the requirements of section 129(d).
            ``(3) Unused dependent care benefits.--For purposes of this 
        subsection, with respect to an employee, the term `unused 
        dependent care benefits' means the excess of--
                    ``(A) the maximum amount of reimbursement allowable 
                to the employee for a plan year under a dependent care 
                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, 2003.
                                 <all>