(PRWEB) October 4, 2005 -- For Disaster Victims Who can go Home:
Don't Throw Out Your Damaged Items!
When you're allowed back home, you will be sorely tempted to clean up and throw out all those hopelessly damaged items. Dont.
Control yourself and plan ahead. Before you dump anything by the roadside, before you fill those garbage bags, take a whole lot of photographs. You don’t need a video camera; you don’t need anything fancy; one of those small, cheap, throwaway cameras will do just fine. Your only purpose is to make a visual record of the conditions – exactly as you find them.
You kitchen has mud on the floor? Click.
The food is rotten in your refrigerator or freezer? Click.
Your furniture is water logged and is filthy dirty? Click.
Your clothes are in a heap of wet rags? Click.
Ok,you get the point. Take LOTS of pictures.
Take pictures of your home from the outside -- all sides.
Take pictures of your garden -- what there is left of it.
Take pictures of the fallen trees, the damaged cars, the boats….
Take pictures!
These pictures, with additional information the IRS will require, are your proof of loss. They will be extremely valuable when you are ready to submit a claim.
For Disaster Victims who Cannot go Home:
Start Your IRS Disaster Claim Before You can go Home.
Stranded away from home, wondering about how much you have lost, put all that worrying to good use.
Even though you were evacuated from your home because of Hurricane Katrina or Hurricane Rita, you can start preparing your IRS disaster claim even before you are allowed to go home.
The first thing you do, whether you are at home or not, is prepare a complete list of ALL your possessions. The more details you can include the better. And you can make an excellent start at it right now.
Download IRS Publication 584 (Casualty, Disaster, and Theft Workbook for Personal-Use Property can be downloaded from
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p584.pdf ) or obtain a copy from your local IRS office. Go directly to page 3, where in Schedule 1 – Entrance Hall, you will find a series of items that you may find in an average entrance hall; add to this list as necessary.
WARNING! You are NOT trying to complete this form right now. You are simply trying to remember everything you had.
Move on from the Entrance Hall to the other Schedules: Living Room, Dining Room, Kitchen, Den, Bedrooms (one schedule for each bedroom please), Bathrooms (one schedule for each bedroom please), Recreation Room, Laundry and Basement, Garage, Sporting Equipment, Men’s Clothing (list separately for each person), Women’s Clothing (list separately for each person), Children’s Clothing (list separately for each child), Jewelry (list separately for each person), Electrical Appliances, Linens, Miscellaneous.
As you can see, just trying to remember and list is a major job -- and most of it can be done from memory, particularly if you have the help of other family members.
If you need more help and guidance on how to prepare the information you need and submit a disaster tax relief claim, download the Home Owner’s Guide to Disaster Tax Relief (e-book version ISBN 0-9765763-1-7, paper version: ISBN 0-9765763-0-9) from
http://www.disaster-tax-relief.com/nr02
