Distributions from governmental plans for health and long-term care insurance

In the case of an employee who is an eligible retired public safety officer who makes the election described in paragraph (6) with respect to any taxable year of such employee, gross income of such employee for such taxable year does not include any distribution from an eligible retirement plan maintained by the employer described in paragraph (4)(B) to the extent that the aggregate amount of such distributions does not exceed the amount paid by such employee for qualified health insurance premiums for such taxable year.

The amount which may be excluded from gross income for the taxable year by reason of paragraph (1) shall not exceed $3,000.

(A) In general An amount shall be treated as a distribution for purposes of paragraph (1) only to the extent that such amount would be includible in gross income without regard to paragraph (1).

(B) Application of section 72 Notwithstanding section 72, in determining the extent to which an amount is treated as a distribution for purposes of subparagraph (A), the aggregate amounts distributed from an eligible retirement plan in a taxable year (up to the amount excluded under paragraph (1)) shall be treated as includible in gross income (without regard to subparagraph (A)) to the extent that such amount does not exceed the aggregate amount which would have been so includible if all amounts to the credit of the eligible public safety officer in all eligible retirement plans maintained by the employer described in paragraph (4)(B) were distributed during such taxable year and all such plans were treated as 1 contract for purposes of determining under section 72 the aggregate amount which would have been so includible. Proper adjustments shall be made in applying section 72 to other distributions in such taxable year and subsequent taxable years.

For purposes of this subsection—

(A) Eligible retirement plan For purposes of paragraph (1), the term “eligible retirement plan” means a governmental plan (within the meaning of section 414(d)) which is described in clause (iii), (iv), (v), or (vi) of subsection (c)(8)(B).

(B) Eligible retired public safety officer The term “eligible retired public safety officer” means an individual who, by reason of disability or attainment of normal retirement age, is separated from service as a public safety officer with the employer who maintains the eligible retirement plan from which distributions subject to paragraph (1) are made.

(C) Public safety officer The term “public safety officer” shall have the same meaning given such term by section 1204(9)(A) of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 ( 42 U.S.C. 3796b(9)(A) ), 1 1 See References in Text note below. as in effect immediately before the enactment of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013.

(D) Qualified health insurance premiums The term “qualified health insurance premiums” means premiums for coverage for the eligible retired public safety officer, his spouse, and dependents (as defined in section 152), by an accident or health plan or qualified long-term care insurance contract (as defined in section 7702B(b)).

For purposes of this subsection—

(A) Direct payment to insurer permitted (i) In general Paragraph (1) shall apply to a distribution without regard to whether payment of the premiums is made directly to the provider of the accident or health plan or qualified long-term care insurance contract by deduction from a distribution from the eligible retirement plan, or is made to the employee. (ii) Reporting In the case of a payment made to the employee as described in clause (i), the employee shall include with the return of tax for the taxable year in which the distribution is made an attestation that the distribution does not exceed the amount paid by the employee for qualified health insurance premiums for such taxable year.

(B) Related plans treated as 1 All eligible retirement plans of an employer shall be treated as a single plan.

(A) In general For purposes of paragraph (1), an election is described in this paragraph if the election is made by an employee after separation from service with respect to amounts not distributed from an eligible retirement plan to have amounts from such plan distributed in order to pay for qualified health insurance premiums.

(B) Special rule A plan shall not be treated as violating the requirements of section 401, or as engaging in a prohibited transaction for purposes of section 503(b), merely because it provides for an election with respect to amounts that are otherwise distributable under the plan or merely because of a distribution made pursuant to an election described in subparagraph (A).

The amounts excluded from gross income under paragraph (1) shall not be taken into account under section 162( l ).