Rep. Denny Heck Introduces Bill to Protect Federal Employees from Unfair Taxes on Moving Expenses

Statement

Today, Congressman Denny Heck (WA-10) introduced legislation to reverse a portion of the Republican tax scam that designated the moving expenses of federal employees working overseas as taxable income.

These moving costs were previously tax exempt, but the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (Public Law No. 115-97) changed any reimbursements of moving costs into taxable income that may force taxpayers to owe thousands of more dollars in taxes to the Internal Revenue Service.

The Keeping the Promise to American Public Servants Act would create a tax exclusion for these costs for federal workers, similar to the one in place for servicemembers. If this bill became law, federal workers would not be taxed on overseas moving expenses incurred after December 31, 2017.

"The Republican tax plan was disastrous for several reasons, and we are just starting to find some of the harmful provisions that snuck their way in, including this irresponsible attempt to make federal employees pay taxes on their overseas moving costs," Heck said. "I represent many hard-working federal employees at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, and many who leave their home for honorable public service positions around the world. We should not reverse the commitments we made to them on how their moving expenses are treated by our tax code. If we don't fix this, we could severely damage our ability to recruit and retain skilled federal employees that we need to serve in important international roles."

December 22, 2018 will mark one year since the GOP tax bill became law. Since then, the Congressional Budget Office projected that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act would increase the federal deficit by $1.9 trillion over the next decade. Heck issued a statement following the House passage, pointing out that 36 million American households will have to pay higher taxes despite promises made by President Trump that all Americans will get a tax cut.

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