| September 6, 2000 |
WASHINGTON – Ways and Means Committee member Jim Ramstad (R-MN) today introduced legislation that will reverse a recent ruling by the Internal Revenue Service affecting families of missing children.
On August 25, the IRS Chief Counsel released an advisory ruling denying the family of a missing child the ability to take a dependency exemption in years after the child was abducted, even if the family continues to maintain the child's room and spends money searching for the child.
"For the IRS to penalize parents of missing and abducted children is as low as it gets," said Ramstad.
"The IRS ruling is anti-family, cruel and heartless," said Ramstad. "On top of more pain and devastation than a family can bear, the IRS is now forcing a tax hike on the families of missing children."
"Although the IRS memorandum concedes that the issue is not 'free from doubt,' the agency regrettably fell on the side of denying basic family tax relief to America's most vulnerable families," Ramstad said. "It just shows how out of touch some Washington bureaucrats are."
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