Tax break for disaster losses largely disappears in tax law

Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images

President Donald Trump speaks about the passage of tax reform legislation on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, December 20, 2017.

If you lose your home to a fire next year, you may not be able to claim it on your taxes.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the tax overhaul President Donald Trump recently signed into law, limits the extent to which filers can take a tax break for personal casualty and theft losses.

Under current law, a taxpayer can claim an itemized deduction for property losses that aren’t reimbursed by insurance and that stem from natural disasters, fires, accidents or other events. The total of your losses on personal property must exceed 10 percent of your adjusted gross income.

With the new law, taxpayers may claim personal casualty losses only if the damage is attributable to a disaster declared by the president. This limitation starts in 2018 and will expire at the end of 2025.

A total of 72,323 filers claimed casualty and theft loss deductions on their 2015 tax returns, the most recent data available, according to the IRS.

“Floods occur almost monthly across this country and there are home fires where people are financially devastated,” said Douglas J. Lyons, managing director of Oceanic Capital Management in Red Bank, New Jersey.

“To not be able to use this one simple tax relief to help people get back on their feet is going to be really painful,” he said.