March 8, 1998

Deaf Watch Newsletter
c/o Richard Roehm
(Address Snipped)

The Honorable Loretta Sanchez
United States House of Representatives
Washington, D.C.  20510

Re: HR 2792, The Employment Discrimination Award Tax Relief Act

Dear Representative Sanchez:

I write to urge your cosponsorship and support of HR 2792, authored by 
Rep. Gerald Solomon, which would eliminate the unfair tax penalty paid 
by victims of employment discrimination. 

Current tax law is unfair to victims of employment discrimination 
because they are subject to a "triple whammy" of additional taxation on 
each portion of their recovery. First, even though awards for physical 
injuries are not taxed, people who suffer emotional harm as a result of 
workplace harassment or discrimination do have to pay taxes on their 
awards. Second, people who receive back wages in a lump sum are required 
to pay more taxes on those wages than they would have if they had 
received the wages on their regular pay schedule because the lump sum 
payment pushes them into a higher tax bracket. And third, victims of 
employment discrimination must pay taxes on the part of their award that 
goes directly to their attorney, even though the attorney will be paying 
taxes on that money as well.

All of these tax provisions significantly raise the costs for employment 
discrimination victims and make it more difficult to settle cases and 
more likely that cases go to trial. As a result, we are wasting judicial 
resources and clogging our courts with unnecessary trials.

HR 2792 remedies each of these problems by:

-Eliminating the tax on emotional distress damages 
-Eliminating the DOUBLE tax on attorneys fees 
-Permitting income averaging of back-pay awards 

Representative Solomon's bill will help make the tax code more fair 
for victims of employment discrimination. It is supported by both 
plaintiffs' attorneys and defense attorneys, and it deserves your 
support as well.

The disability community is one of the largest and most underrepresented 
groups in the State as well in the nation.
 
Thank you very much for your time to read this letter and I anticipate 
your response.


Sincerely,
Richard Roehm