This Fact Sheet is about frequently asked questions that address the federal income tax consequences of compensation payments for forced sterilization.

These frequently asked questions (FAQs) are being issued to provide general information to taxpayers and tax professionals as expeditiously as possible. Accordingly, these FAQs may not address any particular taxpayer’s specific facts and circumstances, and they may be updated or modified upon further review. Because these FAQs have not been published in the Internal Revenue Bulletin, they will not be relied on or used by the IRS to resolve a case. Similarly, if an FAQ turns out to be an inaccurate statement of the law as applied to a particular taxpayer’s case, the law will control the taxpayer’s tax liability. Nonetheless, a taxpayer who reasonably and in good faith relies on these FAQs will not be subject to a penalty that provides a reasonable cause standard for relief, including a negligence penalty or other accuracy-related penalty, to the extent that reliance results in an underpayment of tax. Any later updates or modifications to these FAQs will be dated to enable taxpayers to confirm the date on which any changes to the FAQs were made. Additionally, prior versions of these FAQs will be maintained on IRS.gov to ensure that taxpayers, who may have relied on a prior version, can locate that version if they later need to do so.

More information about reliance is available. These FAQs were announced in IR 2023-81.

Frequently asked questions about compensation payments made by states for forced sterilization

Background
The Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) understand that some states have enacted legislation to compensate victims of forced, involuntary, or coerced sterilization under state programs. These states have made payments to those victims pursuant to the legislation (compensation payments for forced sterilization).
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