The IRS has alerted employers and other taxpayers that because Hurricane Sandy is designated as a qualified disaster for federal tax purposes, qualified disaster relief payments made to individuals by their employer can be excluded from taxable income. Qualified disaster relief payments include:

• Amounts to cover necessary personal, family, living or funeral expenses that were not covered by insurance
• Expenses to repair or rehabilitate personal residences or repair or replace the contents to the extent that they were not covered by insurance

Another result of the Qualified Disaster status is that employer-sponsored private foundations may provide disaster relief to employee-victims without affecting their tax-exempt status.