(Primghar)– If you had flood damage from last summer’s flooding, whether you received any assistance from the government or not — Emergency Management officials are suggesting that you check with your tax preparer, as you — OR YOUR BUSINESS — might be eligible for deductions or tax relief. O’Brien County Emergency Management Director Jared Johnson…
“Last summer the IRS announced, they put out a letter stating some information over tax relief for victims of severe storms, flooding, straight line winds and tornadoes in Iowa which the majority of the northwest Iowa area was included in that federal declaration. So with tax season approaching we want to push out information in regards to that letter and remind people about it because there’s a lot of really important information within that document. The link for that document, I do have pdf I put together with just some shortened summation on tax relief from the IRS and within that document there is a link that will take you to an article that the IRS put out, and then in that article there is information over the covered disaster area that affected taxpayers. Casualty losses, other relief, and then also a reminder about tax return preparation options.”
The link Johnson referred to is available by clicking here.
Johnson says there’s one piece in “casualty losses” that he thinks is especially important…
“Individuals may deduct personal property losses that are not covered by insurance or other forms of reimbursement. My recommendation for individuals is to reach out to their tax preparer to see if there’s any other documents that they recommend bringing when they go to complete their tax documentation for the previous year, and then if individuals are preparing their tax documents on their own, on the IRS website there are instructions. So within that article that’s on the IRS website there are sub links that you can click on to get additional information over what needs to be collected.”
Johnson says there are some items flood victims should have ready to go when they talk taxes…
“Your FEMA documentation, your letter of approval or if you received a letter saying you are not eligible for assistance, how much assistance you did receive, your insurance statement information, if you received assistance from insurance or if you didn’t, and then if you have any other forms of reimbursement, if you’ve been working on projects to repair areas within your home, having documentation over what the repair costs were, photos of before and after, and then reaching out to your tax preparer to see if there’s anything else that they recommend.”
Johnson says this is also a good time to sit down with your insurance agent to review your coverages.
(Courtesy Community First Broadcasting station KIWA in Sheldon)
