Thompson Applauds Historic Vote to Pass Fire Victims Tax Relief Bill

Washington – Today, Rep. Mike Thompson (CA-04) applauded the House of Representative’s vote to pass the Federal Disaster Tax Relief Act (H.R. 5863). The bill includes Rep. Thompson's legislation that would exempt thousands of qualified wildfire victims in California, including PG&E fire victims, from having to pay federal income tax on their settlement money or pay tax on attorney fees that are included in the settlement. This relief would also apply retroactively to qualified victims.
    
“Fire survivors have been through enough in the wake of losing their homes and livelihoods to wildfires—it’s wrong to tax them on the settlement money meant to help them rebuild their lives,” said Rep. Thompson. “Today’s bipartisan vote to provide tax relief to fire survivors is an important step towards recovery for those who lost homes, businesses, and loved ones and sends a clear message to Senate Republicans: It’s time to work with us to pass much-needed relief for disaster victims.”

Rep. Thompson serves as the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Tax for the Ways and Means Committee. He introduced the original legislation to provide tax relief to PG&E fire victims in the 117th Congress and has worked to advance the legislation ever since. 

Last week, Rep. Thompson and Rep. Greg Steube (FL-17) led a bipartisan group of 218 Members of Congress to successfully advance a discharge petition which forced House Speaker Mike Johnson to bring the Federal Disaster Tax Relief Act to the House floor for today’s vote. The historic advancement of Rep Thompson and Rep. Steube’s petition marked only the third time a House discharge petition has succeeded in the 21st Century.

The Federal Disaster Tax Relief Act 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 and 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. 

The bill now goes to the Senate for a vote before going to President Biden’s desk for his signature.

Watch Rep. Thompson's floor remarks on the bill here.