LaMalfa reintroduces bill to exempt PG&E wildfire settlement money from federal taxes
Today, Congressmen Doug LaMalfa and Mike Thompson reintroduced their bill from last Congress to exempt thousands of fire victims who are receiving compensation from the Fire Victim Trust from having to pay federal income tax on their settlement money or attorney fees that are included in the settlement. LaMalfa originally submitted the legislation on Jan. 3, 2023, but it could not be processed until the House elected a speaker, members were officially sworn in and the rules for the 118th Congress were adopted.
In the previous term, the Congressmen introduced H.R. 7305 and had it included in the end of the year FY2023 government funding package before all tax and most disaster relief provisions were removed by the Senate because of a disagreement on tax policy.
“It is essential that we get this done and every Fire Victim Trust beneficiary has this massive tax headache alleviated,” LaMalfa said. “It should have been done last year. Fire victims need this tax relief to help rebuild their lives, they should not have to go through another tax season with this uncertainty about their settlement.”
“Fire survivors have been through living hell in the wake of losing their homes and livelihoods to wildfires and should not be taxed on the settlements from the PG&E Fire Victims Trust,” said Thompson. “This bipartisan bill is a top priority, and I will continue to work with Representatives LaMalfa and Huffman to enact this bill into law to bring much needed relief to fire survivors.”
LaMalfa has also published PG&E tax settlement guidance information on his website.
