PlainBillCongress, translated.Legislation. Context. Public interest.Referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means.
Congressional Research Service
No official summary is available in the imported record yet.
People & committees
Rep. Tenney, Claudia [R-NY-24] · R–NY
Legislative record
A procedural vote is different from passage. Passage in one chamber does not establish enactment. Explore the glossary.
Referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means.
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Primary sources
Text links open the official source. We also preserved the text version used in the PlainBill explanation below.
Source last updated: Aug 24, 2026. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
AI Conversation Starters
Choose a perspective, copy a prompt, and paste it into your preferred AI. Each prompt includes the bill version and available official source links, and asks for counterarguments as well as supporting evidence.
Analyze H.R.10039 as objectively as possible. Explain its main provisions, who would be affected, possible benefits and harms, implementation, exceptions, and uncertainties. Present the strongest arguments for and against it, and identify evidence needed to assess its public impact.
Examine H.R.10039 through a progressive lens, focusing on fairness, access, economic inequality, and effects on vulnerable communities. Explain potential benefits, costs, and unintended consequences. Consider the strongest counterarguments and distinguish stated goals from demonstrated outcomes.
Examine H.R.10039 through a conservative lens, focusing on fiscal responsibility, institutional stability, federalism, and the scope of government. Explain potential benefits, costs, and unintended consequences. Consider the strongest counterarguments and any provisions that challenge this perspective.
Examine H.R.10039 through a civil-liberties and limited-government lens. Consider individual rights, privacy, voluntary choice, accountability, and government power. Explain tradeoffs, possible safeguards, and the strongest counterarguments without assuming the proposal is beneficial or harmful.
PlainBill explanation
Based on the full Introduced in House · 2026-08-03 text. This explanation has not received human editorial review. This overview describes the proposal’s major provisions; it does not establish what its real-world effects would be.
The proposal would change federal tax rules for retirement-account transactions, including which plans are covered and when an individual retirement account loses its status because of transactions serving its owner's personal interests. It would expressly except certain perks tied to an account's value or service fees from the rewritten rule. The changes would apply to transactions after enactment.
For purposes of this section, the term plan means a trust described in section 401(a) which forms a part of a plan, or a plan described in section 403(a), which trust or plan is exempt from tax under section 501(a).
If, during any taxable year of the individual for whose benefit any individual retirement account is established, that individual or the individual's beneficiary deals with the income or assets of a plan in the individual's own interest or for the individual's own account or receives consideration for the individual's own personal account from any party dealing with the plan in connection with a transaction involving the income or assets of the plan, other than the receipt of any relationship benefits, such account ceases to be an individual retirement account as of the first day of such taxable year.
the term relationship benefits means reduced cost or no-cost products or services or enhanced or improved products or services or other benefits received by a person pursuant to an arrangement in which the account value of, or the fees incurred for services provided to, an individual retirement account are taken into account for purposes of determining eligibility to receive such benefit.
The amendments made by this section shall apply to transactions occurring after the date of the enactment of this Act.
Section 1 would name the bill the SMART Savings Act of 2026, short for the Simplifying Modern Access to Retirement Tools for Savings Act of 2026.
This Act may be cited as the Simplifying Modern Access to Retirement Tools for Savings Act of 2026 or the SMART Savings Act of 2026.
Section 2(a) would replace the definition of a plan for Internal Revenue Code section 4975. The new definition would cover a trust described in section 401(a) that forms part of a plan, or a plan described in section 403(a), provided the trust or plan is tax-exempt under section 501(a).
Paragraph (1) of section 4975(e) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended to read as follows: (1) Plan For purposes of this section, the term plan means a trust described in section 401(a) which forms a part of a plan, or a plan described in section 403(a), which trust or plan is exempt from tax under section 501(a).
Section 2(b) would delete paragraphs (3) through (6) of section 4975(c) and renumber paragraph (7) as paragraph (3). It would also delete clause (ii) of section 4975(f)(8)(E) and renumber clause (iii) as clause (ii). The bill does not reproduce the deleted language.
(b) Conforming amendments (1) Section 4975(c) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended— (A) by striking paragraphs (3), (4), (5), and (6), and (B) by redesignating paragraph (7) as paragraph (3). (2) Section 4975(f)(8)(E) of such Code is amended by striking clause (ii) and by redesignating clause (iii) as clause (ii).
Section 2(c) would rewrite the rule for self-dealing—using retirement assets for personal interests. An individual retirement account would lose its status from the first day of a taxable year if its owner or beneficiary engaged in the specified dealings for the owner's own interests or account, or received something of value for the owner's personal account from a party dealing with the plan in connection with a transaction involving the plan's income or assets. Receipt of defined relationship benefits would be excepted.
Section 408(e)(2)(A) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended to read as follows: (A) In general (i) Self-dealing If, during any taxable year of the individual for whose benefit any individual retirement account is established, that individual or the individual's beneficiary deals with the income or assets of a plan in the individual's own interest or for the individual's own account or receives consideration for the individual's own personal account from any party dealing with the plan in connection with a transaction involving the income or assets of the plan, other than the receipt of any relationship benefits, such account ceases to be an individual retirement account as of the first day of such taxable year.
For that rule, the person for whose benefit an account was established would be treated as its creator. Individual accounts within an employer- or employee-association-maintained retirement account would be treated separately, and each individual retirement plan belonging to the person would be treated as a separate contract.
For purposes of this paragraph— (I) the individual for whose benefit any account was established is treated as the creator of such account, (II) the separate account for any individual within an individual retirement account maintained by an employer or association of employees is treated as a separate individual retirement account, and (III) each individual retirement plan of the individual shall be treated as a separate contract.
The relationship-benefits exception would cover discounted, free, enhanced or improved products or services, and other benefits, when eligibility takes an individual retirement account's value or service fees into account.
(ii) Relationship benefits For purposes of clause (i), the term relationship benefits means reduced cost or no-cost products or services or enhanced or improved products or services or other benefits received by a person pursuant to an arrangement in which the account value of, or the fees incurred for services provided to, an individual retirement account are taken into account for purposes of determining eligibility to receive such benefit.
All section 2 amendments would apply to transactions occurring after the date of enactment.
(d) Effective date The amendments made by this section shall apply to transactions occurring after the date of the enactment of this Act.
The supplied August 24, 2026 source snapshot records introduction in the House and referral to the House Committee on Ways and Means on August 3, 2026.
Source snapshot updated 2026-08-24T18:04:06Z. 2026-08-03: Referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means. 2026-08-03: Introduced in House
A closer look
Reviewed version: Introduced in House · 2026-08-03. These findings describe provisions and who may benefit; they are not judgments of waste, corruption, or motive.
This review covers the supplied bill text. “None identified” does not rule out provisions in later versions or accompanying reports and disclosures.
Provisions outside the bill’s main subject, or policy changes attached to appropriations.
None identified in the reviewed text
No unrelated provision or policy change attached to appropriations was identified in the complete supplied introduced text. This conclusion does not establish absence in other versions or accompanying materials.
Spending directed to particular recipients or places outside ordinary competitive or formula-based allocation.
None identified in the reviewed text
No congressionally directed spending for particular recipients or places was identified in the complete supplied introduced text. This conclusion does not establish absence in other versions or accompanying materials.
Narrow exceptions, exemptions, or preferential treatment that warrant a closer look.
Findings to examine
The finding identifies a specific exception within the bill's main policy. Classification as a targeted benefit is not a judgment about its justification.
People receiving perks whose eligibility depends on an individual retirement account's value or service fees would receive an express exception from the rewritten self-dealing rule. The preferential treatment concerns receipt of those defined perks, including discounted, free or improved products and services.
other than the receipt of any relationship benefits, such account ceases to be an individual retirement account as of the first day of such taxable year.
the term relationship benefits means reduced cost or no-cost products or services or enhanced or improved products or services or other benefits received by a person pursuant to an arrangement in which the account value of, or the fees incurred for services provided to, an individual retirement account are taken into account for purposes of determining eligibility to receive such benefit.
Full text preserved for this analysis. Legislative record snapshot: Aug 24, 2026. How PlainBill uses AI