26 U.S.C. § 192 — Contributions to black lung benefit trust

(a) Allowance of deduction: A taxpayer can deduct, for the tax year, the total amount they contributed that year to a trust described in section 501(c)(21). (b) Limitation: The most a taxpayer can deduct under (a) in any tax year is the greater of (1) the amount needed to fully fund, with level (steady) funding, the taxpayer's remaining unpaid liability for black lung claims filed, or expected to be filed, by or about past or present employees, or (2) the total amount needed to bring each section 501(c)(21) trust up to what it needs to pay everything the trust owes for that tax year. (c) Special rules: (1) Method of determining amounts referred to in subsection (b): the amounts in (b) must be worked out using reasonable actuarial (insurance-math) methods and assumptions that don't conflict with the Secretary's regulations. Except where a different period applies, the funding period used is whichever is longer — the average remaining working years of miners currently employed by the taxpayer, or 10 tax years. ("Miner" here means what it means in section 402(d) of the Black Lung Benefits Act.) A different period replaces that one if either the Secretary's regulations set a different period, or the Secretary agrees to a different period the taxpayer proposes. (2) Benefit payments taken into account: Only black lung benefit claims that are actually expected to be paid from the trust count toward the amounts in (b). (3) Time when contributions deemed made: A taxpayer is treated as having made a contribution on the last day of a tax year, if the payment is meant for that year and is made by the tax-return filing deadline for that year, including extensions. (4) Contributions to be in cash or certain other items: No deduction is allowed under (a) for a contribution to a section 501(c)(21) trust unless it's cash, or one of the specific investment items the trust is allowed to invest in under section 501(c)(21)(A)(ii)(II). (5) Denial of section 162 deduction with respect to liability: No deduction is allowed under section 162(a) for any liability that was already counted toward the taxpayer's, or a predecessor's, deduction under this section. (d) Carryover of excess contributions: If the deduction figured under (a), ignoring the (b) limit, is more than the (b) limit for that year, the extra amount carries over to the next tax year and counts as if contributed to the trust that next year. (e) Definition of black lung benefit claim: "Black lung benefit claim" means a claim for compensation for disability or death caused by pneumoconiosis (black lung disease), filed under part C of title IV of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977, or under a similar state law.