A lending company subsequently forgave the student loan taken out by Carpenter, a native of Columbia, Tenn., but now his parents are on the hook for a $28,000 tax bill.
Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-Tenn.) is outraged. He is sponsoring a bill that would prevent the Internal Revenue Service from taxing loans that are forgiven after service members die.
The Andrew P. Carpenter Tax Act is one bill that all members of both parties can and should support.
“It is a fitting way to fix a glaring problem in our tax code, while paying tribute to the memory of Lance Cpl. Carpenter,” DesJarlais said. “His family has experienced the pain of losing their son, husband and father. Hopefully, if passed, this measure will in some way ease this burden.”
Three years before he died, Carpenter, 27, took out a $20,000 student loan. His parents co-signed.
A member of the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, Carpenter was on patrol in southern Afghanistan when he was shot by a sniper. He died of his wounds in Germany on Feb. 19, 2011.
The lending company forgave the student loan after being notified of Carpenter’s death.
The IRS, however, treated the forgiven loan as it always does: as income.
Student loans backed by the federal government are forgiven for deceased veterans. Private lenders have the option of waiving student loans for them. The Andrew P. Carpenter Tax Act would not change that.
The remedy would be applied to the IRS. When credit card balances, student loans and other types of debt are forgiven, the IRS considers the amount owed to be taxable income. In the case of people who are deceased, the heirs — or, as in Carpenter’s case, co-signers — are responsible for the tax. The bill essentially would forgive the tax owed.
The bill would be retroactive to Oct. 7, 2001, so it would cover all veterans who have died in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
DesJarlais’ bill won’t bring Carpenter back. His parents and wife still will grieve. But passage of the bill will give them a small amount of relief and would represent a token of appreciation for their sacrifice.
Follow us on Twitter!
The IRS sees itself as literally have a right to our productively earned income -- which is a concept that have no understanding of, whatsoever. They produce nothing, except fear, intimidation, and billions is the wasted cost of complying with their 14,000 pages of social engineering tax code -- none of which is at all helpful to our economy.
When do you suppose government will figure that out?
When do you suppose WE will figure that out?
Typical knee-jerk liberal reaction. The comment was the IRS produces nothing, not that actual tax dollars do not produce anything. However, the NET effect of taxes collected on the economy is negative relative to what productively invested capital produces without taxes...thanks to the millions of government workers, probably like yourself, that siphon off capital robbed from the economy to support an entire government class and an entitlement class, both of which produce nothing. Lockheed-Martin sells its privately produced aircraft and other products/services to the governments of this country and others on a for profit basis as a private entity. They also formerly made aircraft strictly for private sale. This is entirely different from a government functionary that dreams up new rules just to justify their existence, while sapping the economy of productive resources that generate real jobs and actual, sustained economic growth.
Your liberal clap-trap, Just Sayin' needs a little depth.
But in your world, the government would control all production, however inefficiently, leaving the public to live off of a poorly run, centrally planned economy as equal, but subsistence level beings. Kinda like the former Soviet Union.
No thanks.