Taxes on Personal Injury Settlements

Personal injury settlements are a way for you to recover lost funds, limit the suffering caused by your injury, and secure the right kind of treatment for your injuries. Most insurance providers will offer personal injury settlements immediately even if you are still getting treatment from the hospital. A personal injury settlement is actually a way out for insurance providers, but it can benefit you as well. For one, if you accept a personal injury settlement, this will mean that you want have to go to court. Cases like this often take a long time to litigate before you can achieve the final resolution.

Say you were in an accident and you sustained injuries to your face, knees, and back. You filed a personal injury complaint and fortunately, you received a settlement from your lawsuit. The settlement totaled about $50,000 but you will not get that in full. You will have to pay your lawyer his fees and your health insurance will be reimbursed for as much as $2,000. So you ask, do you still have to pay income taxes on your personal injury settlement? The answer is yes.

The complaint you filed that resulted to a settlement agreement has major tax penalties. As a matter of fact, there is a tax law called "the origin of the claim". This states that if the settlement is regarding a tax-exempt matter, as in the case of physical injury, the settlement received should therefore be tax-free. On the other hand, punitive or disciplinary damages are not exempt from tax. Punitive damages, also known as exemplary damages, are intended to discourage the behavior the defendant engaged in and punish him for that. They are not intended to compensate you.

For further and more detailed discussions of taxes on personal injury settlement --case details, tax consequences, and the like, set up a meeting with a certified and reliable tax consultant.



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