HOUSTON - As the wildfires continue to burn in California, a post is spreading quickly on Facebook claiming the new GOP tax bill would eliminate deductions for natural disasters.
Our Verify team checked this out, after Harvey victims asked if it would affect them. Our fact checkers went straight to the tax bills and here's what they found:
- The House version does eliminate the deduction for uninsured losses in a natural disaster, including hurricanes.
- The Senate version also eliminates the deduction, unless it is declared a federal disaster - Harvey was declared a federal disaster but that same designation is not often given to wildfires.
We are still waiting for the two bills to be reconciled, so we are not sure which version will be the final. It will not affect disasters in 2017, since it won't go into effect until 2018.
We can verify this post is true, but will not affect victims of the current wildfires or Harvey.