Wildfire survivors across the United States received some long-awaited good news this week when the House of Representatives passed the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act of 2024. Among the bipartisan package of tax-related bills was the Protect Innocent Victims of Taxation After Fire (PIVOT Fire) Act, authored by Congressman Doug LaMalfa (R-CA) and Congressman Mike Thompson (D-CA).
The PIVOT Fire Act will make any financial relief payments provided to wildfire victims tax-exempt. This includes exemptions from federal income tax on settlement funds, legal fees, emotional distress claims, lost wage reimbursements, and other living expense assistance programs. In addition, any taxes already paid on these funds since 2020 will now be eligible for retroactive refunds.
One Comment
I live in southern oregon and want to say that California congresman Doug LaMalfa and Mike Thompson are two people the state of California can be very proud of.
The two of them put together a bipartisan bill to finally give help to wildfire survivors and the ridiculous extremely high taxing of any relief monies for the survivors from the IRS. I barely survived the Labor Day fires in southern Oregon. If this bill passes the senate, it will allow survivors to really begin to rebuild their lives and losses to move on to some sort of normalcy.