Tax Relief Available for Victims of Natural Disasters

Published: Sept. 1, 2005, 1:33 a.m.

b'

Given the disaster that has taken place on the Gulf Coast with\\nHurricane Katrina and its aftermath, I\\u2019ve put together a quick\\nand dirty summary of some of the tax issues involved in casualty\\nlosses and federally declared disaster areas that may be of use for\\nthose of us who have clients that are located in the affected areas. \\nNote that since this was put together rather quickly, you should\\nconfirm all of these details. I also added brief consideration of\\nthe issues to be considered with off-site backups due to the risk of\\na common disaster hitting both the original files and the backup\\u2014a\\nsituation that, unfortunately, has likely happened to some businesses\\nin New Orleans.

\\n

A list of the federally\\ndeclared disaster areas can be found at the FEMA website, so that\\nyou can determine the counties in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama\\nthat are subject to these rules. \\n

\\n

In related matters, the AICPA has posted a set\\nof resources for CPAs related to disaster recovery, as well as a\\nlink to the document Disaster Recovery: A Guide to Financial\\nIssues that was written jointly\\nby the National Endowment for Financial Education, the American Red\\nCross, and the AICPA, . As well, the AICPA has posted a page\\nlinking to various\\norganizations to which contributions can be made to support\\nrelief efforts.

'