Prevent Presidential Profiteering Act
Summary
What This Bill Does
The Prevent Presidential Profiteering Act adds a new Internal Revenue Code chapter imposing a tax equal to 100 percent of qualified civil action amounts received by a covered person. Covered people include anyone who has served as President, that person's spouse and specified relatives, and entities controlled by the President or those family members. The tax applies to damages received by settlement, verdict, judgment, or otherwise from a civil action filed against the United States or a federal agency when the filing, settlement, verdict, or judgment occurred during the President's service period. The bill excludes those amounts from gross income while imposing the separate 100 percent tax, treats the tax as an income-tax-style administrative obligation, and applies to amounts received after enactment.
Who Benefits and How
Federal taxpayers and government-ethics advocates benefit because presidential families and controlled businesses cannot keep civil damages recovered from the United States for covered lawsuits during a presidency. The IRS gains a direct statutory mechanism to assess the 100 percent tax rather than relying on general income-tax rules.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Former Presidents, sitting Presidents, presidential spouses, covered relatives, and controlled entities lose the economic value of covered civil damages because the full qualified amount is taxed away. The IRS must identify covered persons, determine the applicable service period, administer exclusions from gross income, and collect the new tax. Litigants considering suits against the United States may face changed incentives for settlement or damages strategy.
Key Provisions
- Creates a new Internal Revenue Code chapter taxing covered presidential civil-action damages at 100 percent.
- Establishes covered-person rules for Presidents, specified family members, and entities they control.
- Applies the tax to damages from civil actions against the United States or federal agencies when the case activity occurs during the President's service period.
- Provides a gross-income exclusion for covered damages while imposing the separate 100 percent tax on amounts received after enactment.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Imposes a 100 percent tax on civil damages that Presidents, their family members, or controlled entities receive from lawsuits against the United States during the President's service period.
Key Policy Areas
Tax, Government Ethics
Primary Purpose
Imposes a 100 percent tax on civil damages that Presidents, their family members, or controlled entities receive from lawsuits against the United States during the President's service period.
Policy Domains
Substantive provisions
Identified Gains
- Federal taxpayers
- Government ethics advocates
- IRS
Identified Costs
- Former Presidents
- Presidential family members
- Presidential controlled entities
- IRS
- Covered litigants
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeReferred to the House Committee on Ways and Means.
Introduced in House
Mr. Thompson of California (for himself, Mr. Doggett, Mr. Larson …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Former Presidents, IRS, Presidential controlled entities
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "irs"
- → Internal Revenue Service
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology