U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell is crafting legislation that would provide tax relief to the victims of Superstorm Sandy.

Modeled after similar legislation passed in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Pascrell’s bill would provide personal, municipal and business tax relief.

The bill would provide the following relief:

Individual Assistance:

• Waiver of Adjusted Gross Income limitation for theft/loss deduction, so individuals can deduct the cost of uninsured losses, and increase the standard deduction for those who do not itemize their tax returns.
• Increase the limitation on charitable contributions for disaster relief.  
• Look-back Provision for Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit, to allow a family in the affected region to opt to use their previous year's earnings to calculate their Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit.

Business Assistance:

• Allowing businesses to expense the cost of disaster recovery.
• Allowing businesses to use Net Operating Loss to recover past tax payments or reduce future tax payments, if they are operating with no tax liability during the prescribed period.
• Waiver of certain mortgage revenue bond requirements, easing access to capital.
• Increase in new markets tax credit for investments in community development entities serving Hurricane Sandy disaster areas.
• Allowing public utilities to reduce their tax liability when rebuilding or replacing assets damaged in the storm.
• Work Opportunity Tax Credits for displaced workers.

Public and Municipal Assistance:

• New authority for affected states to issue state and local, and private activity bonds, modeled after GO Zone bonds issued after Hurricane Katrina, to help rebuild infrastructure, utilities and public buildings destroyed by the storm.

Housing Assistance:

Increased allocation of the Low Income Housing Tax Credit for declared disaster areas.