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Catching Up Family Caregivers Act of 2026

To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to allow additional catch-up contributions for certain family caregivers.

Introduced Apr 14, 2026

Latest action (Apr 14, 2026) Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance. (Sponsor introductory remarks on measure: CR S1741-1742)

Policy area
Issues
Economy & Taxes

Summary

The Catching Up Family Caregivers Act of 2026 allows unpaid family caregivers to make additional catch-up contributions to retirement accounts, similar to the catch-up contributions available to workers age 50 and older. A qualified family caregiver is defined as someone who completed at least 500 hours of unpaid caregiving in the current or prior year and worked fewer than 500 hours in paid employment. Eligible caregivers include family members providing in-home care for children or adults with special needs, and caregiving can involve assistance with daily living tasks. An individual can receive this benefit for up to five taxable years. The provisions apply to taxable years beginning after December 31, 2026.

AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.

Sponsor (1)

Actions (2)

  1. Apr 14, 2026 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance. (Sponsor introductory remarks on measure: CR S1741-1742) · senate
  2. Apr 14, 2026 Introduced in Senate

Similar bills (6)

Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.

Full text

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

April 14, 2026

Ms. Collins (for herself and Mr. Warner) 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 allow additional catch-up contributions for certain family caregivers.

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 “Catching Up Family Caregivers Act of 2026”.

SEC. 2. ADDITIONAL CATCH-UP CONTRIBUTIONS FOR CERTAIN FAMILY CAREGIVERS.

(a) In General.—Subparagraph (A) of section 414(v)(5) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended—

(1) by striking “who would” and inserting “who—

“(i) would”,

(2) by adding “or” at the end, and

(3) by adding at the end the following new clause:

“(ii) is a qualified family caregiver for the taxable year,”.

(b) Qualified Family Caregiver.—Paragraph (6) of section 414(v) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by adding at the end the following new subparagraphs:

“(D) Qualified family caregiver.—

“(i) In general.—Except as provided in clause (ii), the term ‘qualified family caregiver’ means an individual who—

“(I) has completed 500 or more hours as a family caregiver during the taxable year or any 1 previous taxable year, and

“(II) during the same taxable year, has completed fewer than 500 hours of paid employment (including self-employment).

“(ii) Limitation.—An individual shall be treated as a qualified family caregiver for not more than a total of, consecutively or nonconsecutively, the lesser of—

“(I) 1 taxable year for each taxable year during which such individual met the requirements of subclauses (I) and (II) of clause (i), or

“(II) 5 taxable years.

“(iii) Family caregiver.—The term ‘family caregiver’ means an unpaid family member, a foster parent, or another unpaid adult, who is unemployed or severely underemployed (as determined by the Secretary) and who provides in-home care, monitoring, management, supervision, or treatment of—

“(I) a child, or

“(II) an adult with a special need (as defined in section 2901 of the Public Health Service Act), including an elderly adult who requires care or supervision due to an age-related condition.

“(iv) Hours.—An individual shall be treated as serving as a family caregiver during the hours in which the individual is engaged in caregiving tasks including assistance with bathing or grooming, dressing, laundry, food shopping or preparation, housekeeping, managing medications, transportation, and mobility assistance.

“(v) Plan reliance on self- certification.—An applicable employer plan is entitled to rely on the written representation of an individual that the individual was a qualified family caregiver for a taxable year.

“(E) Applicable dollar amount for qualified family caregivers.—An individual who is an eligible participant for the taxable year by reason of being a qualified family caregiver shall be treated for purposes of paragraph (2) in the same manner as an eligible participant who would attain age 60 but would not attain age 64 before the close of the taxable year.”.

(c) IRA Catch-Up Contributions.—Clause (i) of section 219(b)(5)(B) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by striking “who has attained the age of 50 before the close of the taxable year, the deductible amount” and inserting “who—

“(I) has attained the age of 50 before the close of the taxable year, or

“(II) is a qualified family caregiver (as defined in section 414(v)(6)(D)) for the taxable year, the deductible amount”.

(d) Effective Date.—The amendments made by this section shall apply to taxable years beginning after December 31, 2026. <all>

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