When a federally declared disaster damages your home or property, current tax rules let you deduct part of the loss — but the rules expire and have to be renewed each time. This bill would lock those rules into the tax code so they apply automatically to disasters declared between late 2019 and the end of 2026. It also makes payments people receive for losses from federally declared wildfires permanently tax-free, retroactive to wildfires from 2015 onward. Households recovering from hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, or wildfires would no longer have to wait for Congress to pass each new disaster-tax fix.
Congressional Summary
Doug LaMalfa Federal Disaster Tax Relief Certainty ActThis bill extends the federal tax deduction for qualified disaster-related personal casualty losses and the exclusion from gross income of qualified wildfire relief payments.Under current law, unreimbursed personal casualty losses arising in a qualified disaster area (qualified disaster-related personal casualty losses) are deductible (as an itemized tax deduction or as part of the standard tax deduction) if such losses exceed $500 per casualty. A qualified disaster area is an area with respect to which a major disaster has been declared during the period beginning in 2020 and ending 60 days after July 4, 2025, if the incident period begins on or after December 28, 2019, and on or before July 4, 2025.The bill extends the federal tax deduction for qualified disaster-related personal casualty losses by defining a qualified disaster area as an area with respect to which a major disaster has been declared if the incident period begins on or after December 28, 2019, and before January 1, 2027.The bill provides that the exclusion from gross income of qualified wildfire relief payments applies to such payments attributable to forest or range fires declared a federal disaster after 2014 and before 2027, regardless of when such payments are received. (Currently, qualified wildfire relief payments attributable to forest or range fires declared a federal disaster after 2014 and received after 2019 and before 2026 may be excluded from gross income.)The bill also provides statutory authority for several related tax rules.
Details
- Congress
- 119th
- Chamber
- House
- Status
- summarized
- Action
- Reported to House
- Action Date
- 2026-04-09
- Date Added
- 2026-04-25
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