Parsing the Meaning of ‘Personal Injuries’ Under Section 104(a)(2)
Journal of Taxation of Investments, p. 92, Winter 2010
Posted: 2 Sep 2011 Last revised: 5 Sep 2011
Date Written: August 31, 2011
Abstract
In September 2009, the Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service issued a proposed regulation that would modify a longstanding definition of “personal injuries” under Internal Revenue Code section 104(a)(2). (That section provides an exclusion for “damages received . . . on account of personal physical injuries or physical sickness.”) This regulation project is important, and the proposal is helpful in many respects. But it leaves at least one fundamental question unanswered: What is it that distinguishes a personal injury from any other injury?
Keywords: personal injury, physical injury, injury, tax regulation, IRC Section 104(a)(2)
JEL Classification: K34
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation