Sponsors (2)
The bill aims to increase uptake of employer-provided childcare and improve transparency and compliance through IRS guidance and reporting—potentially lowering childcare costs for families—while adding federal staffing, creating reporting burdens, and risking uneven benefits that favor workers at larger employers over some low-income workers.
Employers (especially small employers) and working parents will get clearer IRS guidance and assistance that makes it easier to offer and use employer-provided child care benefits and tax-advantaged accounts, increasing uptake and potentially lowering out-of-pocket childcare costs for families.
Tax preparers, employers, and taxpayers will have an IRS-issued fact sheet explaining available tax benefits and rules, reducing compliance errors and uncertainty for filers and businesses.
Taxpayers and small-business-owners will benefit from annual public reporting that increases transparency about how federal incentives for employer-provided childcare are working and highlights barriers for potential Congressional or administrative fixes.
Low-income workers and parents at firms that cannot offer employer-provided childcare may be left behind because the bill emphasizes promoting employer-provided childcare through tax incentives that primarily benefit employers able to offer such benefits (often larger firms).
Small employers and state/local governments could face additional administrative burden to collect and report utilization data and requests for assistance, creating compliance costs and time burdens.
The bill creates a new senior-paid federal position and associated office/staff (Executive Schedule Level V), increasing federal payroll costs borne by taxpayers.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Introduced March 12, 2026 by Margaret Wood Hassan · Last progress March 12, 2026
Creates a new IRS Business Child Care Liaison position to help employers, tax preparers, and workers understand and use employer-provided child care benefits and related tax incentives. The Liaison will do outreach, produce guidance, coordinate across agencies, be consulted on IRS rules, and file annual public reports with data on use of Dependent Care FSAs and the child care tax credit. The Liaison can have office staff, is exempt from certain competitive hiring rules, is paid at Executive Schedule Level V, and must work with GSA to create a SAM.gov landing page within 120 days; the role must submit annual reports to congressional tax committees and make them publicly available.