Taxes on Short Sale, Loan Modification & Mortgage Foreclosure Part 4 (Excerpt) 1099 C is for Cancellation of Debt Income Only, not for Interest Rate and Payment Reduction So for people who find themselves in a very difficult situation considering these options whether it's a loan modification or a short sale, whatever they need to do to relieve themselves of this particular burden of a mortgage, that for whatever reason they're no longer able to maintain, they are not always considering the tax ramifications associated with taking a specific course of action, like this example the short sale option. Right there is actually two pieces of tax component here, you have the forgiveness of debt income that we talked about, they still have the fact that you sold your house and you have to see if there was a gain on that. Over and above the cost basis of the home. We talked about the 1099Cs a few moments ago, did you say that the lender sends a copy of the 1099C to the IRS? Absolutely. Now I'm the guy for a few minutes ago who bailed on $400,000 and sold it for $300,000 am I going to get a copy of the 1099C if I haven't given my lender my new address. Well that could be a problem, they will send it to the last address they have on record for you. And as a homeowner it's my problem. The IRS will get a copy, so they will look for it on your return, if you forget to put it on then you're going to get a friendly notice from the IRS. If somebody is going to do a short sale, its a fairly civil transaction and when I say civil I mean going for a short sale is horrible for them and their family, but it beats the alternative which is foreclosure, and I think the real problem is when there's a foreclosure and the guy just walks away and moves off to El Centro California, he's the one who's really getting hurt. So in the event that somebody takes a course of action, and I know that Velocity financial and Michael Barnes, youre not necessarily advocates for that short sale approach. It's not normally the best...