IRS says it will refund taxes extracted from Ohioans who got financial assistance after Norfolk Southern derailment disaster
Most of the people who received money from Norfolk Southern followed last year A fiery train derails In eastern Ohio you won't have to pay taxes on millions of dollars in aid payments after all.
Internal Revenue Service He said Wednesday Most of the payments people living near East Palestine, Ohio, received to help pay for temporary housing or replace their belongings are not taxable because the February 3, 2023, derailment forced thousands of people to move. Evacuate their homes He described it as “an event of a catastrophic nature.”
The railroad estimates it paid more than $21 million to residents after the train derailment as part of more than $107 million in aid it provided to communities affected by the disastrous train accident.
The fact that residents were told that they had to pay taxes on railway money was a sore point for people who were still struggling to get money from the railways. Recovery from deviation.
“I don’t know why they didn’t do this from the beginning,” said Misty Allison, an East Palestine resident. “The IRS ruling is a positive step in the right direction, but it's a miss in the big picture. I hope President Biden makes good on his promise that what government can't make whole in Norfolk South.”
Residents are considering whether to accept a share of A $600 million class action settlement Norfolk Southern agreed to or withdrew from this deal so they could file their own individual lawsuits. Later this month, they will be able to hear the result Investigation conducted by the National Transportation Safety Board In derailment at a hearing in eastern Palestine. Earlier, the safety board said that the accident was That's probably why Because one of the railway cars overheated and was not detected soon enough by trackside sensors to prevent it from derailing.
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio said it should not have taken the IRS so long to realize the derailment was a disaster.
“This is a step that is long overdue – the people of eastern Palestine should not have paid taxes on the assistance they needed in the wake of the train derailment,” Brown said.
Norfolk Southern also praised the IRS's decision.
“We are proud of the investments we have made in eastern Palestine and commend the IRS for taking action to ease the burden of additional federal taxes on residents,” the railroad said in a statement.
The IRS said some payments would be taxable if they were for lost income, payments to businesses or payments made by railroads for access to land during the ongoing cleanup.
Residents who have already filed their taxes before the regular April 15 deadline will have to amend their returns and request a refund of the taxes they paid on payments from the railroad.
