Combat-Injured Veterans Tax Fairness Act of 2016

Floor Speech

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Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 5015, a bill that would improve the fairness of the tax code and treat our service members with the respect they are due.

Veterans who suffered combat-related injuries who separated from the military are not supposed to be taxed on any one-time disability payments. Unfortunately, an accounting error has cost about 14,000 veterans more than $78 million in taxes. Just under 500 of these veterans are from my home state of Illinois.

H.R. 5015 fixes this problem by instructing the DoD to identify those who were wrongfully taxed so that they can be reimbursed. The lion's share of the affected veterans are outside of the window for amending their tax returns to recoup the funds.

Consequently, this bill would allow those veterans identified by the DoD to file amended returns to recoup these unintentionally-withheld funds. This is a good bill that helps our service members as we should. I hope that this chamber can engage in similar bipartisan efforts to support other needy Americans as we move into the next Congress.

I am troubled that some stakeholders are advocating that a 15 to 20 percent corporate tax rate serve as the central metric by which we judge any tax reform effort. To achieve this rate, middle- and low- income families and small businesses will have to subsidize the wealthiest corporations, foregoing critical credits and deductions that provide much needed assistance.

I sincerely hope that we advance the intent of this bill to help Americans in need as we consider tax reform next year.

I strongly support H.R. 5015, and I urge my colleagues to support its passage.

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