Survivors of Hurricane Harvey are eligible for all sorts of state and federal aid, including FEMA, Red Cross and D-SNAP.
That raises the question: Is disaster assistance taxable?
Our Fact Check team found that it is NOT.
Because it is used for the personal good of people in a qualified area, disaster relief payments are not considered taxable.
Although disaster assistance doesn’t have to be reported as income, it’s a different matter when it comes to disaster losses.
"Where we get into a little different situation is when we get into the disaster loss calculations," said Bill Clark, owner of Tax Pro. "That’s a whole separate thing because those are claims that we’re making on our tax return to itemize the loss that we’ve sustained of property and comes into a more complex issue of calculation."
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