I
118TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION H. R. 5863
To provide tax relief with respect to certain Federal disasters.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
OCTOBER 2, 2023
Mr. STEUBE introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means
A BILL
To provide tax relief with respect to certain Federal
disasters.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Federal Disaster Tax 4
Relief Act of 2023’’. 5
SEC. 2. EXTENSION OF RULES FOR TREATMENT OF CER-6
TAIN DISASTER-RELATED PERSONAL CAS-7
UALTY LOSSES. 8
For purposes of applying section 304(b) of the Tax-9
payer Certainty and Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2020, sec-10 tion 301 of such Act shall be applied by substituting ‘‘the 11 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:07 Oct 05, 2023 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5863.IH H5863kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 2 •HR 5863 IH
Federal Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2023’’ for ‘‘this Act’’ 1 each place it appears. 2
SEC. 3. EXCLUSION FROM GROSS INCOME FOR COMPENSA-3
TION FOR LOSSES OR DAMAGES RESULTING 4
FROM CERTAIN WILDFIRES. 5
(a) IN GENERAL.—For purposes of the Internal Rev-6
enue Code of 1986, gross income shall not include any 7 amount received by an individual as a qualified wildfire 8 relief payment. 9
(b) Q UALIFIED WILDFIRE RELIEF PAYMENT.—For 10
purposes of this section— 11
(1) I N GENERAL .—The term ‘‘qualified wildfire 12
relief payment’’ means any amount received by or on 13
behalf of an individual as compensation for expenses 14 or losses incurred as a result of a qualified wildfire 15 disaster, but only to the extent any expense or loss 16 compensated by such payment is not compensated 17
for by insurance or otherwise. 18
(2) Q UALIFIED WILDFIRE DISASTER .—The 19
term ‘‘qualified wildfire disaster’’ means any feder-20 ally declared disaster (as defined in section 21
165(i)(5)(A) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986) 22
declared, after December 31, 2014, as a result any 23
forest or range fire. 24
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(c) D ENIAL OF DOUBLE BENEFIT.—Notwith-1
standing any other provision of the Internal Revenue Code 2 of 1986— 3
(1) no deduction or credit shall be allowed (to 4
the person for whose benefit a qualified wildfire re-5
lief payment is made) for, or by reason of, any ex-6
penditure to the extent of the amount excluded 7
under this section with respect to such expenditure, 8
and 9
(2) no increase in the basis or adjusted basis of 10
any property shall result from any amount excluded 11
under this subsection with respect to such property. 12 (d) L IMITATION ON APPLICATION.—This section 13
shall only apply to qualified wildfire relief payments re-14 ceived by the individual during taxable years beginning 15 after December 31, 2019, and before January 1, 2026. 16 SEC. 4. EAST PALESTINE DISASTER RELIEF PAYMENTS. 17
(a) D ISASTER RELIEF PAYMENTS TO VICTIMS OF 18
EAST PALESTINE TRAIN DERAILMENT.—East Palestine 19
train derailment payments shall be treated as qualified 20 disaster relief payments for purposes of section 139(b) of 21 the Internal Revenue Code of 1986. 22
(b) E AST PALESTINE TRAIL DERAILMENT PAY-23
MENTS.—For purposes of this section, the term ‘‘East 24 Palestine train derailment payment’’ means any amount 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:07 Oct 05, 2023 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5863.IH H5863kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 4 •HR 5863 IH
received by or on behalf of an individual as compensation 1 for loss, damages, expenses, loss in real property value, 2 closing costs with respect to real property (including real-3 tor commissions), or inconvenience (including access to 4 real property) resulting from the East Palestine train de-5 railment if such amount was provided by— 6
(1) a Federal, State, or local government agen-7
cy, 8
(2) Norfolk Southern Railway, or 9
(3) any subsidiary, insurer, or agent of Norfolk 10
Southern Railway or any related person. 11
(c) T RAIN DERAILMENT.—For purposes of this sec-12
tion, the term ‘‘East Palestine train derailment’’ means 13 the derailment of a train in East Palestine, Ohio, on Feb-14 ruary 3, 2023. 15
(d) E FFECTIVE DATE.—This subsection shall apply 16
to amounts received on or after February 3, 2023. 17
Æ
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