A Wisconsin congressman is working to ensure parents of deceased students are not subject to excessive tax payments.
U.S. Rep. Ron Kind, D-Wis., introduced the bipartisan Stop Taxing Death and Disability Act last month to eliminate the practice of charging parents taxes on their deceased or permanently disabled children’s forgiven student loans.
Kind called on his colleagues in Congress to “move quickly” on adopting the bill and ending the “unfair practice.”
“There is nothing more heartbreaking than losing a child or having your child become permanently disabled,” Kind said in a statement. “When a parent faces this unthinkable tragedy, the last thing they need to worry about is how they will come up with the money to pay extra taxes that they shouldn’t have to pay.”
The bill would ensure that an individual’s gross income does not include debt that was forgiven because of a student’s death or permanent disability.
This is not the first time the Stop Taxing Death and Disability Act has been introduced in the House. Last session, Kind and a group of congresspeople from both parties sponsored the bill, but it did not pass.
