retention credit for employers affected by qualified disasters (a) In general For purposes of section 38 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, in the case of an eligible employer, the qualified disaster employee retention credit shall be treated as a credit listed in subsection (b) of such section. For purposes of this subsection, the qualified disaster employee retention credit for any taxable year is an amount equal to 40 percent of the qualified wages with respect to each eligible employee of such employer for such taxable year. For purposes of the preceding sentence, the amount of qualified wages which may be taken into account with respect to any individual shall not exceed $6,000. (b) Definitions For purposes of this section— (1) Eligible employer The term eligible employer means any employer— (A) which conducted an active trade or business in a qualified disaster zone at any time during the incident period of the qualified disaster with respect to such qualified disaster zone, and (B) with respect to whom the trade or business described in subparagraph (A) is inoperable at any time after the incident beginning date of such qualified disaster, and before January 1 of the year after the year of such incident beginning date, as a result of damage sustained by reason of such qualified disaster. (2) Eligible employee The term eligible employee means with respect to an eligible employer an employee whose principal place of employment at any time during the incident period of the qualified disaster referred to in paragraph (1) with such eligible employer was in the qualified disaster zone referred to in such paragraph. (3) Qualified wages The term qualified wages means wages (as defined in section 51(c)(1) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, but without regard to section 3306(b)(2)(B) of such Code) paid or incurred by an eligible employer with respect to an eligible employee at any time during the period described in paragraph (1)(B), and which occurs during the period— (A) beginning on the date on which the