US SB496

Payments to victims of the February-March 2024 Texas Panhandle wildfires (including the Smokehouse Creek, Windy Deuce, Grape Vine Creek, 687 Reamer, and Roughneck fires) would be excluded from federal taxable income as qualified disaster relief payments

Compensation covered includes payments from federal, state, or local government agencies as well as Xcel Energy and its subsidiaries, insurers, or agents for losses, damages, property value decreases, closing costs, realtor commissions, and access inconveniences

Amends Internal Revenue Code Section 1033 to add "fire" alongside "flood" for involuntary conversion rules, allowing ranchers who sell livestock due to fire to defer recognition of gain and receive extended replacement periods

Amends Internal Revenue Code Section 451(g) to allow farmers using cash accounting to defer income from fire-related livestock sales to the following tax year, matching existing treatment for flood and drought

Tax provisions apply retroactively to amounts received on or after February 26, 2024, and to taxable years beginning after December 31, 2023