{"id":22851,"date":"2019-05-21T16:09:38","date_gmt":"2019-05-21T16:09:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/uncategorized\/2019\/05\/21\/will-the-military-widows-tax-disappear-this-year\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T06:03:52","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T06:03:52","slug":"will-the-military-widows-tax-disappear-this-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/management\/pay-benefits\/2019\/05\/21\/will-the-military-widows-tax-disappear-this-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Will the military \u2018widows tax\u2019 disappear this year?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cathy Milford has been fighting against the military <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2017\/03\/12\/defense-lawmakers-take-aim-at-fixing-the-widow-s-tax\/\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cwidow\u2019s tax\u201d<\/a> for 25 years, and said it\u2019s always an emotional drain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThis is just an awful thing to do,\u201d she said after a Capitol Hill rally Tuesday pushing for a fix on the issue. \u201cEvery time I talk about this, I have to dig my husband up and bury him all over again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Her husband, Harry, retired from the Coast Guard just a few months before suffering a fatal aneurysm. The couple would have celebrated their 50th anniversary this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Instead, she\u2019s spending time on Capitol Hill lobbying lawmakers on problems with military and veterans benefits for surviving spouses. Milford is one of more than <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2017\/11\/08\/widows-tax-fix-in-defense-budget-compromise-would-raise-some-tricare-co-pays\/\" target=_blank>65,000 individuals nationwide hurt by the issue<\/a>, costing each an average of $11,000 each year.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2019\/05\/03\/gold-star-families-who-saw-huge-tax-bill-hikes-could-get-relief-from-congress\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"157\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Arlington-National-Cemetery.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Gold Star families who saw huge tax bill hikes could get relief from Congress<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Some families of fallen troops owed thousands more this spring because of tax law changes made by lawmakers in 2017.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI could have well paid off my house with that over the years,\u201d Milford said. \u201cAnd I worry about the other families who need that money. I don\u2019t like to come up (to Washington, D.C.) to talk about this, but who are they to ignore me and these problems?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Advocates are optimistic that this could be the year they fix them. So far, nearly 300 House lawmakers and 68 senators have signed on to legislation correcting what they call \u201ca grave injustice\u201d against grieving military and veterans families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The problem rests with how the government treats two separate survivor payouts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The first, the Dependency and Indemnity Compensation program, awards around $15,000 a year to survivors of veterans or troops who die of service-related causes. There is no cost to troops or families to enroll.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The other, the Survivor Benefit Plan, gives families of military retirees who enroll up to 55 percent of their loved ones&#8217; retirement pay after the veteran dies. The life insurance-type payouts are subsidized by DoD, but require enrollees to pay-in part of their retirement benefit to be eligible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Individuals who qualify for either SBP money or DIC benefits receive full payouts from the respective programs. But family members who qualify for both are subject to an offset, where for every dollar paid out in DIC their payouts under SBP are reduced by one dollar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That costs those families up to $1,000 a month in payouts advocates insist they deserve. Some families have avoided the offset penalty by transferring benefits into their children\u2019s accounts, but that creates other complicated tax issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lawmakers passed a partial solution two years ago, extending a stipend to cover some of the offset, but advocates have said that a full solution needs to be a congressional priority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cSome of our families have been waiting over four decades for this moment in time,\u201d said Bonnie Carroll, founder of the Tragedy Assistance Program For Survivors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s important to remember that military spouses move every few years with their service members and face unemployment rates up to four times higher than their civilian counterparts. (This money) is essential to their financial security.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2017\/03\/12\/defense-lawmakers-take-aim-at-fixing-the-widow-s-tax\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"177\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/635680687822226387-arlington-flags-in-weigjpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Defense lawmakers take aim at fixing the &#8216;widow&#8217;s tax&#8217;<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Federal rules take thousands in payouts from military families, but Congress has struggled to fix the problem. <\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The legislation \u2014 introduced by Sen. Doug Jones, D-Ala. \u2014 does not yet have a price tag or a funding mechanism to cover the estimated $5.7 billion cost of ending the SBP-DIC offset problem. In past years, paying for the benefits has been the largest barrier in legislative success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But Jones and Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, said they believe there is momentum to act on the issue this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThis is incredibly unfair,\u201d Risch said at the Capitol Hill rally. \u201cThere isn\u2019t anyone who would look at this and not say that it\u2019s just flat wrong, for people to pay premiums on an insurance policy and not be able to collect because the government is too greedy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Advocates have several events planned this week to raise awareness on the issue and lobby for quick action on Jones\u2019 bill. Milford said she hopes this is the last time she\u2019ll have to beg lawmakers to take action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI\u2019m tired of hearing how much this is going to cost,\u201d she said. \u201cHow much have they saved already by taking our money away?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The issue costs about 65,000 surviving military spouses an average of $11,000 a year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":47331,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":15,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[100,23,93,12,25,15,68,19,70],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3334],"class_list":["post-22851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-home","category-middle-column","category-news","category-newsletters","category-pay-benefits","category-pentagon-congress","category-veterans","category-your-army"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"PTRMIUC74RDKFKCEIOTS6VCEQM","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2019\/05\/21\/will-the-military-widows-tax-disappear-this-year\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented 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