Posted on 02/24/2024 7:01:18 AM PST by CFW
DARLINGTON, Penn.—Kim Nalesnik was shocked to receive a 1099-MISC tax form from Norfolk Southern railroad. She never worked there, but her household received $2,500 from the company in 2023.
A Norfolk Southern train derailed in neighboring East Palestine, Ohio, in February last year, spilling 1.1 million pounds of toxic vinyl chloride. Adding to the disaster, officials started a controlled release and burn from overturned rail cars days later, creating a fireball and large plume of black smoke filled with chemicals that could be seen for miles.
Locals say the smoke dropped poisons into their land and water and that they are still feeling the effects a year later.
In a letter to Norfolk Southern, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) noted the incident caused the release of vinyl chloride, butyl acrylate, ethylhexyl acrylate, and ethylene glycol monobutyl ether. In the aftermath, Norfolk Southern says it made $21 million in financial assistance payments to more than 4,500 families. It put some residents up in hotels, paid for lost wages, animal care, property damage, and paid some people in affected areas an “inconvenience payment” of roughly $1,000 per person in the household.
This month, 1099 tax forms started arriving in mailboxes, listing payments the company made to victims as taxable income. It was another kick in the teeth to residents who say the derailment left them potentially sick, with lower property values, and anxious about the future.
(Excerpt) Read more at theepochtimes.com ...
paywall free link:
Surprise Tax Form Is Latest Insult for Victims of East Palestine Train Derailment
I think a deduction for the amounts actually paid might be the easy approach.
OR ... tell the IRS in your own filing that the railroad fraudulently issued the 1099-MISC.
Unless you are awarded damages by the court for injury, it’s taxable.
This is probably a result of some form of settlement. To receive payment, they probably signed something saying they wouldn’t sue.
That puts the payment in the taxable category.
There is a detailed explanation somewhere in the 80 or 90,000 pages of the Internal Revenue Code; all you have to do is find it.
A better solution would have been to set up a GoFundMe account and have the railroad make the payments that way, because last I heard GoFundMe amounts are not taxable.
Imagine, in a presidential election year, the Xiden regime allowing this to happen to a community composed of the most favored racial demographic.
If I had it to do over, I would never take a cent from the government after a catastrophe!!! And I lost everything.
I got $25,000 emergency funds and now 3 years later they have decided it was a loan and want it back plus interest and penalties of another $9,000.
I about passed out when I opened the letter on Christmas Eve.
“Unless you are awarded damages by the court for injury, it’s taxable.”
Yes. It’s taxable income. Fake news.
Bttt.
5.56mm
If the IRS can waive deadlines for tax payers in areas suffering a natural disaster, and the President can transfer student debt from the debtors to tax payers, then the government can waive taxes on the payments from the railroad.
The student loan payoff money’s gotta come from somewhere...
Yes, but “can” and “do” are 2 different things. Do you think the Senate would approve that?
“I got $25,000 emergency funds and now 3 years later they have decided it was a loan and want it back plus interest and penalties of another $9,000.
I about passed out when I opened the letter on Christmas Eve.”
Just WOW!
As I’ve had to explain to folks who should have known better, a 1099 doesn’t determine tax liability. IRS regs require 1099s to be issued in set circumstances, and IRS regs determine whether or not there is tax liability.
A company doesn’t have discretion on whether or not to issue a 1099.
Look carefully at the paperwork you signed. I'm betting there are loan documents in there somewhere. I haven't looked at things in a couple of decades, but it used to be the first $1000 from FEMA was free money. Until you got more through the SBA's ODA, at which point the first $1000 was rolled into the loan.
Now, the SBA can be (or at least was) sloppy with its documentation, so you might want a lawyer in your state to look at the documents.
And most likely MAGA people!
Exactly, payment on casually damage treated as income?
I was living in a car!
I never signed anything for a $25,000 loan!
I never in over 3 years got a notice.. nothing!!!
You people don’t get it do you??
So from the perspective of the Biden administration, they chose poorly.
If I found a check for $25,000 in my mailbox one day, you can be sure I’d learn everything about it before I deposited it in my bank account.
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