[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 85 (Thursday, June 23, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7296-S7298]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. SANTORUM:
  S. 1292. A bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to allow a 
credit against income tax for expenses incurred in tele-working; to the 
Committee on Finance.
  Mr. SANTORUM. Mr. President, I rise to introduce legislation that 
would help people who ``telework'' or work from home, to receive a tax 
credit. Teleworkers are people who work on-line from home--whether a 
few days a week or their entire work schedule--using computers and 
other information technology tools. Nearly 40 million Americans 
telework today, and according to experts, 40 percent of the nation's 
jobs are compatible with telework.
  I am introducing the Telework Tax Incentive Act to provide a $500 tax 
credit for telework. The legislation provides an incentive to encourage 
more employers to consider telework for their employees. Telework 
should be a regular part of the 21st century workplace.
  The best part of telework is that it improves the quality of life for 
everyone--both the employee, the employer and the community. Telework 
reduces traffic congestion and air pollution. It reduces gas 
consumption and our dependency on foreign oil. Encouraging telework is 
good for families--giving working parents the flexibility to meet 
everyday demands. Telework provides people with disabilities greater 
job opportunities. It can also be a good option for retirees and others 
who choose to work part-time.
  A task force on telework initiated by former Virginia Governor James 
Gilmore recommended the establishment of a tax credit toward the 
purchase and installation of electronic and computer equipment that 
allow an employee to telework. For example, the cost of a computer, fax 
machine, modem, phone, printer, software, copier, and other expenses 
necessary to enable telework could count toward a tax credit, provided 
the person worked at home a minimum number of days per year.
  My legislation would provide a $500 tax credit ``for expenses paid or 
incurred under a teleworking arrangement for furnishings and electronic 
information equipment which are used to enable an individual to 
telework.'' An employee must telework a minimum of 75 days per year to 
qualify for the tax credit. Both the employer and employee are eligible 
for the tax credit, but the tax credit goes to whomever absorbs the 
expense for setting up the at-home worksite.
  On October 9, 1999, President Clinton signed into law legislation 
that I introduced in coordination with Representative Frank Wolf from 
Virginia as part of the annual Department of Transportation 
appropriations bill for Fiscal Year 2000. S. 1521, the National 
Telecommuting and Air Quality Act, created a pilot program to study the 
feasibility of providing incentives for companies to allow their 
employees to telework in five major metropolitan areas including 
Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Houston and Denver.
  President Bush signed legislation on July 14, 2000, that included an 
additional $2 million to continue telework efforts in the 5 pilot 
cities, including Philadelphia, to market, implement, and evaluate 
strategies for awarding telecommuting, emissions reduction, and 
pollution credits established through the National Telecommuting and 
Air Quality Act. I am excited that Philadelphia continues to use this 
opportunity to help to get the word out about the benefits of 
telecommuting for many employees and employers.
  Telecommuting improves air quality by reducing pollutants, provides 
employees and families flexibility, reduces traffic congestion, and 
increases productivity and retention rates for businesses while 
reducing their overhead costs. It's a growing opportunity and option 
which we should all include in our effort to maintain and improve 
quality of life issues in Pennsylvania and around the Nation. According 
to statistics available from 1996, the Greater Philadelphia area ranked 
number 10 in the country for annual person-hours of delay due to 
traffic congestion. Because of this reality, all options including 
telecommuting should be pursued to address this challenge.
  The 1999 Telework America National Telework Survey, conducted by Joan 
H. Pratt Associates, found that today's 19.6 million teleworkers 
typically work 9 days per month at home with an average of 3 hours per 
week during normal business hours. Teleworkers seek a blend of job-
related and personal benefits to enable them to better handle their 
work and life responsibilities; however these research findings 
demonstrate the impact on the bottom line for employers as well. 
Employers may save more than $10,000 per telework employee simply from 
reduced absenteeism and increased employee retention. Thus an 
organization with 100 employees, 20 of whom telework, could potentially 
realize a savings of $200,000 annually, or more, when productivity 
gains are added.
  When I introduced this legislation in the 107th Congress, it was 
endorsed by a number of groups including including the International 
Telework Association and Council (ITAC), Covad Communications, National 
Town Builders Association, Litton Industries, Orbital Sciences 
Corporation, Consumer Electronic Association, Capnet, BTG Corporation, 
Electonic Industries Alliance, Telecommunications Industry Association, 
American Automobile Association Mid-Atlantic, Dimensions International 
Inc., Capunet, TManage, Science Applications International Corporation, 
AT&T, Northern Virginia Technology Council, Computer Associates 
Incorporated, and Dyn Corp.
  Work is something you do, not someplace you go. There is nothing 
magical about strapping ourselves into a car and driving sometimes up 
to an hour and a half, arriving at a workplace and sitting before a 
computer, when we can access the same information from a computer in 
our homes. Wouldn't it be great if we could replace the evening rush 
hour commute with time spent with the family, coaching little league or 
volunteering at a local charity?
  I urge my colleagues to consider cosponsoring this legislation that 
promotes telework and helps encourage additional employee choices for 
the workplace.
                                 6_____
                                 
      By Mr. BUNNING (for himself, Mr. Conrad, Mr. Lott, Mr. Smith, and 
        Mrs. Lincoln):
  S. 1293. A bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to permit 
the consolidation of life insurance companies with other companies; to 
the Committee on Finance.
  Mr. BUNNING. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce legislation to 
allow affiliated life and non-life insurance companies to file 
consolidated tax returns. The current outdated rules do not allow such 
consolidation.
  Consolidated return provisions under current law were enacted so that 
the members of an affiliated group of corporations could file a single 
tax return. The right to file a ``consolidated'' return is generally 
available to businesses of all natures conducted by the affiliated 
corporations. The purpose behind consolidated returns is simply to tax 
a complete business as a whole rather than its component parts 
individually. Whether an enterprise's businesses are operated as 
divisions within

[[Page S7298]]

one corporation or as subsidiary corporations with a common parent 
company, a business entity should generally be taxed as a single entity 
and be allowed to file its return accordingly.
  Corporate groups which include life insurance companies are denied 
the ability to file a single consolidated return until they have been 
affiliated for at least 5 years. Even after this 5-year period, they 
are subject to two additional limitations that are not applicable to 
any other type of group. First, non-life insurance companies must be 
members of the affiliated group for five years before their losses may 
be used to offset life insurance company income. Second, non-life 
insurance affiliate losses, including current year losses and any 
carryover losses, that may offset life insurance company taxable income 
are limited to the lesser of 35 percent of life insurance company's 
taxable income or 35 percent of the non-life insurance company's 
losses.
  There are no clear reasons why affiliated groups that include life 
insurance companies are denied the same unrestricted ability to file 
consolidated returns that is available to other financial 
intermediaries, and corporations in general. Allowing members of an 
affiliated group of corporations to file a consolidated return prevents 
the business enterprise's structure from obscuring the fact that the 
true gain or loss of the business enterprise is the conglomeration of 
each of the members of the affiliated group. The limitations contained 
in current law are clearly without policy justification and should be 
repealed.
  Our legislation will repeal the two 5-year limitations for taxable 
years beginning after this year, and it will phase out the 35 percent 
limitation over 7 years. The staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation 
has recommended repeal of two of the three limitations addressed by my 
bill on the grounds of needless complexity. The third limitation is, in 
effect, merely a minimum tax on life insurance company income. That 
limitation should have been repealed when the alternative minimum tax 
was enacted, and certainly has no place in the current tax laws. I 
should also note that Congress included in the tax cut vetoed by then-
President Clinton in 1999 much of what is contained in this 
legislation.
  I thank Senators Conrad, Lott, Smith and Lincoln for joining me in 
sponsoring this legislation. We hope you will join us as cosponsors of 
this bipartisan, much-needed legislation.
                                 ______