Last week, the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee passed without opposition U.S. Rep. Greg Steube’s, R-Fla., “Federal Disaster Tax Relief Act.”
The bill “extends rules for the treatment of certain disaster-related personal casualty losses and provides tax relief for losses due to federally declared disasters.”
Steube, who is a member of the committee, weighed in after he steered the bill through it.
“My district continues to recover from the monstrous Category Five storm that slammed into Southwest Florida last September. Through no fault of their own, many of my constituents incurred hundreds to thousands of dollars in disaster-related expenses. Floridians have now waited over a year for Congress to designate Hurricane Ian as a qualified disaster and provide much-needed tax relief for those impacted financially by Hurricane Ian,” said Rep. Steube. “Hurricane Ian victims are not the only ones awaiting Congressional action. My disaster relief bill also provides tax relief to victims of Hurricane Idalia, Hurricane Nicole, Hurricane Fiona, the western U.S. wildfires, and the Ohio train derailment. Today’s committee action is a huge step towards helping many of our fellow Americans. I thank Chairman Smith and my colleagues for their support. I urge swift consideration of this bill on the House Floor,” said Steube.
U.S. Reps. Bill Johnson, R-Ohio, and Doug LaMalfa, R-Calif., are co-sponsoring the bill which is now before the entire chamber.
“The legislation designates Hurricane Ian, among other federally declared disasters, as a qualified disaster for the purposes of determining the tax treatment of certain disaster-related personal casualty losses. With respect to uncompensated losses arising in the disaster area, the Federal Disaster Tax Relief Act eliminates the current law requirements that personal casualty losses must exceed 10 percent of adjusted gross income to qualify for deduction. The legislation would also eliminate the current law requirement that taxpayers must itemize deductions to access this tax relief,” Steube’s office noted. “Additionally, the bill excludes from taxpayer gross income, for income tax purposes, any amount received by an individual taxpayer as compensation for expenses or losses incurred due to a qualified wildfire disaster (a disaster declared after 2014 as a result of a forest or range fire). It also excludes relief payments for losses resulting from the East Palestine, Ohio, train derailment on February 3, 2023.”
While Steube’s bill has momentum in the House, there is no companion measure over in the U.S. Senate.
