Sexual assault survivors do not pay income tax on settlements.
S. 5395 — Survivor Justice Tax Prevention Act · Filed by Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Sep 15, 2026 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
This bill changes the tax code for sexual assault survivors. They do not have to pay income tax on settlement money. Right now, only people hurt by physical injuries get this break. The bill adds sexual assault to that list. If a court says the money is for sexual assault, the IRS must believe it.
Who it affects
Sexual assault survivors keep more of their settlement money. They face fewer IRS questions about their cases.
One thing to notice
The bill uses the federal definition of sexual assault from criminal law. State definitions of sexual assault may not match.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Republicans.
- Sep 15, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Sep 15, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on Finance · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- settlement — Money paid to end a legal case without going to trial.
- IRS — The government office that collects taxes and checks tax returns.
- income tax — A tax the government charges on money people earn or receive.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (3,261 characters) on Sep 24, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,819 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-09-25.
“Sexual assault survivors do not pay income tax on settlements.” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s5395/simple Report an error