[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1629 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1629

  To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide penalty free 
distributions and loans from certain retirement plans for the purchase 
                and refinancing of principal residences.


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                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 19, 2009

 Mr. McCotter (for himself and Mr. Marchant) 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 penalty free 
distributions and loans from certain retirement plans for the purchase 
                and refinancing of principal residences.

    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 ``Helping Americans Keep Their Homes 
Act of 2009''.

SEC. 2. MODIFICATION OF WAIVER OF TAX ON EARLY DISTRIBUTIONS FROM 
              CERTAIN RETIREMENT PLANS FOR PURCHASE OF PRINCIPAL 
              RESIDENCE.

    (a) Increase in Dollar Limitation.--Clause (i) of section 
72(t)(8)(B) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by striking 
``$10,000'' and inserting ``$15,000''.
    (b) Temporary Waiver of First-Time Homebuyer Requirement.--
Subparagraph (D) of section 72(t)(8) of such Code is amended by adding 
at the end the following new clause:
                            ``(iv) Temporary waiver of first-time 
                        homebuyer requirement.--In the case of 
                        distributions made before January 1, 2011, all 
                        individuals shall be treated as first-time 
                        homebuyers.''.
    (c) Expansion of Penalty Waiver to All Qualified Retirement 
Plans.--Subparagraph (F) of section 72(t)(2) of such Code is amended by 
striking ``from an individual retirement plan'' and inserting ``from a 
qualified retirement plan (as defined in section 4974(c))''.
    (d) Effective Date.--The amendments made by this section shall 
apply to distributions made after the date of the enactment of this 
Act.

SEC. 3. LOANS FROM INDIVIDUAL RETIREMENT PLANS FOR REFINANCING OF A 
              PRINCIPAL RESIDENCE.

    (a) In General.--Subsection (e) of section 408 of the Internal 
Revenue Code of 1986 (relating to tax treatment of accounts and 
annuities) is amended by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
            ``(7) Exception for loans from individual retirement plans 
        for qualified principal residence refinancing.--
                    ``(A) In general.--Paragraphs (2) and (3) of this 
                subsection and section 4975 shall not apply with 
                respect to any qualified principal residence 
                refinancing loan from an individual retirement plan to 
                the individual for whose benefit the plan is maintained 
                to the extent that such loan (when added to the 
                outstanding balance of all other such loans) does not 
                exceed $5,000 reduced by the excess (if any) of--
                            ``(i) the highest outstanding balance of 
                        such loans during the 1-year period ending on 
                        the day before the date on which such loan was 
                        made, over
                            ``(ii) the outstanding balance of such 
                        loans on the date on which such loan was made.
                    ``(B) Qualified principal residence refinancing 
                loan.--For purposes of this paragraph, the term 
                `qualified principal residence refinancing loan' means 
                a loan the proceeds of which are used by the individual 
                for whose benefit the individual retirement plan is 
                established to pay costs associated with the 
                refinancing of indebtedness which is secured by the 
                principal residence (within the meaning of section 121) 
                of the taxpayer (including payment of such indebtedness 
                if such payment is in connection with the refinancing 
                of the remaining indebtedness).
                    ``(C) Requirements related to loan repayments.--
                            ``(i) Requirement that loan be repaid 
                        within 5 years.--Paragraph (1) shall not apply 
                        to any loan unless such loan is required, by 
                        its terms, to be repaid within 5 years.
                            ``(ii) Requirement of level amortization.--
                        Rules similar to the rules of section 
                        72(p)(2)(C) shall apply for purposes of this 
                        subsection.
                            ``(iii) Failure to repay treated as 
                        distribution.--A qualified principal residence 
                        refinancing loan shall not be treated as a 
                        distribution from the individual retirement 
                        plan except that any repayment of a qualified 
                        principal residence refinancing loan which is 
                        not made on the date that such payment is due 
                        shall be treated as a distribution from the 
                        individual retirement plan on such date.
                    ``(D) Termination.--Subparagraph (A) shall not 
                apply to any loan made after December 31, 2010.''.
    (b) Effective Date.--The amendments made by this section shall 
apply to loans made after the date of the enactment of this Act.
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