Here's something interesting.

The new hurricane recovery tax breaks may be a boon for me.

This clause is the interesting part:

From FOX News:

Penalty-Free Retirement Plan Withdrawals

Katrina victims who withdraw money from their company retirement plans or IRAs in order to make repairs or pay bills will not be hit with the usual 10 percent early withdrawal penalty even if they are under age 59 1/2. The maximum withdrawal is $100,000. In addition, these individuals can spread the income tax on these withdrawals over three years instead of having to pay the entire amount in the year of the distribution.

If your company retirement plan offers “hardship” loans, the maximum amount is temporarily increased from $50,000 to $100,000.



Not sure if I qualify as a 'victim', but I was certainly living here during the storm and I did just take a bunch of money out of my 401k to pay bills, so tax season could be WAAAAY better than I thought.