Your short sale may have tax consequences. The IRS considers the debt your lender forgave taxable income. This is the difference between what you owed and what your home sold for. The lender will report the income to you on a Form 1099-C, Cancellation of Debt. You must report the taxable income to the IRS on your federal tax return to avoid possible underpayment of tax and other associated penalties.
Check your 1099 for errors. Confirm your lender put the correct amount in box 7, as the number might affect your return. Box 7 contains the fair market value of the property. Check your home appraisal report and recent sales figures for similiar properties in the same neighborhood if you're unsure of the property's market value. Contact your lender for a corrected form if you find an error on the 1099.
Confirm the canceled income debt shown in box 2. You will need the total amount of debt you owed the lender before the short sale. Check your mortgage statements and short sale paperwork for this figure. Subtract the total debt from the fair market value shown in box 7. The result is your canceled debt income and should be around the figure shown in box 2 of the 1099.
Enter the figure in box 2 of your 1099 as "Other income" on your federal tax return form. Find the other income line on the tax form you're using. For the 2012 tax year, for example, line 21 was for reporting other income.
Determine whether you must file a Schedule D, Capital Gains and Losses, to report the gain from the short sale. If your property was your primary home and you owned it for at least two out of the last five years before the short sale, you may qualify for an exclusion of some or all of the gains income. For example, a single filer could exclude $250,000 for the 2012 tax year.
Calculate your gain from the short sale if you must file a Schedule D. Subtract your adjusted basis in the home from its fair market value. The adjusted basis is how much you paid for the home plus the total cost of major improvements you made. The result is your gain. Report the gain on your Schedule D.
Tips
You should not receive a 1099-C if you had a non-recourse loan. With a non-recourse loan, the lender can only repossess the property if you don't pay and can't go after you personally in court. You may not have to pay taxes on short sale income if you included the debt on a bankruptcy. Speak to an attorney if you included the loan on your bankruptcy. The Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act allows homeowners to exclude some or all the income from a short sale as long as the home was sold by the end of 2013.
References
- IRS: Form 1040 (2012)
- IRS: Form 1099-C
- IRS: Foreclosure and Debt Cancellation
- Ace Tax and Realty: Short Sale Gain Estimator
- Forbes: Extension of Mortgage Debt Relief and Debt Cancellation: Options If Your Mortgage Is Still Underwater
- Internal Revenue Service. "Home Foreclosure and Debt Forgiveness." Accessed Mar. 3, 2020.
Tips
- You should not receive a 1099-C if you had a non-recourse loan. With a non-recourse loan, the lender can only repossess the property if you don't pay and can't go after you personally in court.
- You may not have to pay taxes on short sale income if you included the debt on a bankruptcy. Speak to an attorney if you included the loan on your bankruptcy.
- The Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act allows homeowners to exclude some or all the income from a short sale as long as the home was sold by the end of 2013.
Writer Bio
Anna Assad began writing professionally in 1999 and has published several legal articles for various websites. She has an extensive real estate and criminal legal background. She also tutored in English for nearly eight years, attended Buffalo State College for paralegal studies and accounting, and minored in English literature, receiving a Bachelor of Arts.