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senate Bill S. 1370

Should Congress Give ‘Gold Star Families’ Tax Relief for Their Military Survivor Benefits by Fixing a Tax Code Mistake?

Argument in favor

This bill would provide immediate tax relief to the families of servicemembers who gave their lives defending our freedom and has virtually unanimous bipartisan support by fixing an unintended mistake in the tax code.

burrkitty's Opinion
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05/27/2019
Who would vote no on this? Although, frankly, the whole tax scam need to be repealed. They passed it sight unseen, unread, and undebated. Unsurprisingly, their incompetence has hurt people.
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GeorgeB's Opinion
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05/27/2019
Gold Star families have already paid the ultimate price. Give them a tax break!
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SneakyPete's Opinion
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05/27/2019
👍🏻👍🏻 Senate Bill S-1370 AKA the “Gold Star Family Tax Relief Act” 👍🏻👍🏻 I’m in strong support of and recommend the passage of the Senate Bill S-1370 AKA the “Gold Star Family Tax Relief Act” which,would treat military survivor benefits that are received by children as earned income for the purposes of the “kiddie tax” (the tax on the unearned income of children). In effect, this would exempt military survivor benefits from the tax. The exemption would apply retroactively for the 2018 tax year and for all years thereafter. This bill would provide immediate tax relief to the families of service members who gave their lives defending our freedom and has virtually unanimous bipartisan support by fixing an unintended mistake in the tax code. SneakyPete..... 👍🏻👍🏻GoldStar👍🏻👍🏻. 5*27*19.....
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Argument opposed

Congress should leave this provision of the tax code in effect as it is, even if it results in the widows and widowers and children of fallen servicemembers facing a higher tax burden.

Todd's Opinion
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05/28/2019
Let trump eat that tax code and political mistake; fix it in 2020. The republicans deserve to suffer for their short sightedness. I am a veteran. Give the gold star families their money back in 2020 that was stolen from them by the republicans regimes rich tax cuts / socialism for the rich.
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Jill's Opinion
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05/27/2019
In my opinion their survivor benefits should be tax free. Their loved one paid the ultimate price for this country there should be no penalty for the benefits to their families. It’s the least we can do for them. If we can give massive tax cuts to corporations and billionaires we can certainly give tax exemptions to gold star families! Let the billionaires and corporations ante up the difference. Any that have already paid should be given refunds at the very least for 2018. Maybe going retro even further? Do what is right for these families. They have suffered enough.
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Justin's Opinion
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05/27/2019
Although my love and respect goes to those injured in the line of duty and their families this is a bandaid on a horribly broken tax system. I firmly believe that I shouldn’t need a lawyer or another company to file taxes let alone paying a third of my income to the government. Build a smaller ship and you won’t have to plug as many holes.
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What is Senate Bill S. 1370?

This bill — the Gold Star Family Tax Relief Act  — would treat military survivor benefits that are received by children as earned income for the purposes of the “kiddie tax” (the tax on the unearned income of children). In effect, this would exempt military survivor benefits from the tax. The exemption would apply retroactively for the 2018 tax year and for all years thereafter.

The need for this bill arose after a change made by the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act to the application of the tax to prevent the sheltering of income by wealthy parents had the unintended consequence of raising taxes on military survivor benefits.

Impact

The children, widows, and widowers of servicemembers killed in the line of duty; and the tax code.

Cost of Senate Bill S. 1370

A CBO cost estimate is unavailable.

More Information

In-Depth: Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) introduced this bill to provide tax relief for those receiving military survivor benefits who lost a parent or spouse serving in the military by fixing an unintended loophole in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act:

“This bipartisan legislation helps those who lost a husband  or wife, a father or mother, serving in the military to protect us. This legislation fixes an unintended problem and lessens the taxes of the surviving spouse. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act has helped millions. I thank Democratic colleagues for joining to improve the law and ensure more Americans benefit.”

Original cosponsor Sen. Doug Jones (D-AL) added:

“Gold Star families hae given more to our country than most of us could ever imagine. While we can never repay their immense sacrifices, we do make a solemn commitment to care for them. Unfortunately, thousands of these widows and widowers are currently denied the full benefits they’re due, which forces many to resort to putting some of these benefits in children’s names. To significantly raise taxes on those children’s benefits is unconscionable, and I am proud to join with my colleague Senator Cassidy to correct this egregious mistake.”

This bill has the support of 48 bipartisan cosponsors in the Senate, evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats. It passed the Senate by unanimous consent on May 21, 29.


Media:

Summary by Eric Revell

(Photo Credit: Arlington National Cemetery via Flickr / Public Domain)

AKA

Gold Star Family Tax Relief Act

Official Title

A bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to treat certain military survivor benefits as earned income for purposes of the kiddie tax.

bill Progress

  • Not enacted
    The President has not signed this bill
  • The house has not voted
  • The senate has not voted
      senate Committees
      Committee on Finance
    IntroducedMay 8th, 2019
    burrkitty's Opinion In Favor
    ···
    05/27/2019
    Who would vote no on this? Although, frankly, the whole tax scam need to be repealed. They passed it sight unseen, unread, and undebated. Unsurprisingly, their incompetence has hurt people.
    Like (106)
    Follow
    Share
    Todd's Opinion Against
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    05/28/2019
    Let trump eat that tax code and political mistake; fix it in 2020. The republicans deserve to suffer for their short sightedness. I am a veteran. Give the gold star families their money back in 2020 that was stolen from them by the republicans regimes rich tax cuts / socialism for the rich.
    Like (38)
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    GeorgeB's Opinion In Favor
    ···
    05/27/2019
    Gold Star families have already paid the ultimate price. Give them a tax break!
    Like (51)
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    SneakyPete's Opinion In Favor
    ···
    05/27/2019
    👍🏻👍🏻 Senate Bill S-1370 AKA the “Gold Star Family Tax Relief Act” 👍🏻👍🏻 I’m in strong support of and recommend the passage of the Senate Bill S-1370 AKA the “Gold Star Family Tax Relief Act” which,would treat military survivor benefits that are received by children as earned income for the purposes of the “kiddie tax” (the tax on the unearned income of children). In effect, this would exempt military survivor benefits from the tax. The exemption would apply retroactively for the 2018 tax year and for all years thereafter. This bill would provide immediate tax relief to the families of service members who gave their lives defending our freedom and has virtually unanimous bipartisan support by fixing an unintended mistake in the tax code. SneakyPete..... 👍🏻👍🏻GoldStar👍🏻👍🏻. 5*27*19.....
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    Cndrla's Opinion In Favor
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    05/27/2019
    They call it a mistake, I call it incompetence....idiots!
    Like (30)
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    Jeanne's Opinion In Favor
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    05/27/2019
    Rescind the tax scam in its entirety and fix all these issues at once.
    Like (28)
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    Anthony's Opinion In Favor
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    05/27/2019
    This is a no brainer of course they should have the issue fixed. Nothing more to say if you truly respect the families of these heroes.
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    Gopin2020's Opinion In Favor
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    05/27/2019
    I strongly recommend passage of this bill as written as a veteran anything we can do for veterans or their families I fully support that. #MAGA
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    Linda's Opinion In Favor
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    05/27/2019
    These payments should be exempt from taxation. Our KIA families deserve every consideration. Widows who remarry and outlive that spouse, should be eligible to continue receiving her widow’s benefits. She should have Tricare medical coverage. Her benefits should be lifetime.
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    Kodiwodi's Opinion In Favor
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    05/28/2019
    Why just Gold Star Families, Widows, Widowers and Surviving Children? Why not Disabled Veterans? You took their arms, legs, minds. Why don’t they get a break? Why do wealthy and Corporations get tax breaks but service men and women don’t? Riddle me that.
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    IllWill's Opinion In Favor
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    05/28/2019
    Maybe our useless politicians should have actually read the tax bill before they voted on it! Instead they rushed it through so that they could ensure that their wealthy donors and large corporations could get their taxes cut without regard to anything else that could have been buried in the bill.
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    James 's Opinion In Favor
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    05/27/2019
    They shouldn’t pay taxes at all.
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    Raymond 's Opinion In Favor
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    05/27/2019
    Yes this should be a no brainer. Our military members give all for country. So does their loved ones. Please don’t play politics with this. They have given their all to give you the freedom of America.
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    middle.class.old.lady's Opinion In Favor
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    05/27/2019
    Of course this should be corrected. The tax breaks were given to the top 2%. A poorly thought out tax bill that was rushed through.
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    Robert 's Opinion In Favor
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    05/28/2019
    The service member has paid in full with their lives. Let’s give the spouse and children a tax break.
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    jimK's Opinion In Favor
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    05/27/2019
    We are obligated to fix mistakes that cause unintended damage to our population. Especially to families who have given so much to protect our way of life.
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    davidf's Opinion In Favor
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    05/27/2019
    In their rush to payoff their donors and the 1%, and punish the majority of the American public the Republicans failed to do due diligence and punished Gold Star families. This needs to be fixed ASAP!
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    Colleen's Opinion In Favor
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    05/27/2019
    Haven’t these kids lost enough. There should be no kiddie tax After I posted this, I read the comments. Right away, even though all but 2 or 3 are for the, the attacks begin. This is how congress behaves and this is why they get nothing Don. Are we not better than that?
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    John's Opinion In Favor
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    05/28/2019
    Our current tax law was rushed into law with very little thought put into it. There are many problems with it, and this is just one way to start correcting bad legislation.
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    Ronda 's Opinion In Favor
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    05/27/2019
    This fixes just one of the many, many, MANY mistakes in the hastily written and completely undebated (because they wouldn’t let it be) Republican Tax Cuts For The Super Wealthy and Screw Middle Class Jobs Act of 2017. So yes, fix this one thing if you can. A better plan is to reverse this travesty in its entirety.
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