Washington, D.C. – Today, a bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced legislation providing tax relief to children who have lost a parent serving in the military.

Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX), the top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, released the following statement upon introduction of the bill:

“For years, tax experts asked Congress to simplify the way children are taxed on their unearned income, and we worked to provide that help in our new tax code.

“Military survivor benefits are clearly different than a gift of stocks and bonds to a child, and they never should have been caught up in this decades-old anti-abuse tax in the first place. When it was brought to our attention that simplification of the tax in 2017 was having unintended consequences for our Gold Star families, we worked quickly and on a bipartisan basis to find a solution that is fair and will also offer retroactive relief for affected families.

“I want to thank our Members on both sides of the aisle for their important work on this bill, and I encourage quick action so we can provide certainty to these families whose parents paid the ultimate price.”   

Background: Simplification of a special tax dating back to 1986 that was intended to stop wealthy parents from sheltering income by shifting it to their children with lower tax rates inadvertently caused higher taxes on military survivor benefits.  The new proposal will effectively remove these benefits from the special 1986 tax.

CLICK HERE to view the bill text.

The following Members are original sponsors and cosponsors of this legislation:

Sponsor:

Rep. Elaine Luria (D-VA)

Original Republican Cosponsors:

Rep. Kenny Marchant (R-TX)

Rep. George Holding (R-NC)

Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-OH)

Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE)

Rep. Michael Waltz (R-FL)

Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA)

Rep. Ann Wagner (R-MO)

Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart (R-FL)

Original Democrat Cosponsors:

Rep. Terri Sewell (D-AL)

Rep. Brian Higgins (D-NY)

Rep. Jimmy Panetta (D-CA)

Rep. Ron Kind (D-WI)

Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI)

Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-FL)

Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY)