According to the IRS, nearly any debt you owe that is canceled, forgiven or discharged becomes taxable income to you. You'll receive a Form 1099-C, "Cancellation of Debt," from the lender that forgave the debt.
If your debt is forgiven or discharged for less than the full amount you owe, the debt is considered canceled in the amount that you don't have to pay. The law provides several exceptions, however, in which the amount you don't have to pay isn't canceled debt.
Definition and Examples of Cancellation of Debt (COD)
The cancellation of debt means that a lender has removed your obligation to pay back a debt, or at least a portion of it. Canceled debt can come as a result of negotiation with your creditors, debt relief programs, loan forgiveness, or through bankruptcy.
Debt cancellation happens when a lender forgives or discharges some or all of a debt that you owe. The process typically doesn't affect your credit score—unless it happens in bankruptcy—but it could end up costing you. Debt cancellation typically happens in accordance with a debt forgiveness program.
If you receive a 1099-C, you may have to report the amount shown as taxable income on your income tax return. Because it's considered income, the canceled debt has tax consequences and may lower any tax refund you were due. The canceled or forgiven amount is entered as other income on Form 1040 or 1040-SR.
If a creditor discharged a debt of $600 or more, you should receive a Form 1099-C from the IRS showing the amount of debt forgiven for that tax year. In most cases, this is the amount you'll need to include in your gross income – the sum of your earnings before taxes – when filing your tax return.
The creditor that sent you the 1099-C also sent a copy to the IRS. If you don't acknowledge the form and income on your own tax filing, it could raise a red flag. Red flags could result in an audit or having to prove to the IRS later that you didn't owe taxes on that money.
This information can remain on your credit report for up to seven years. If you are able to get your debt completely canceled, you then no longer have any responsibility for the amount owed. But the creditor must report the canceled amount or settled debt to the IRS using the Form 1099-C cancellation of debt.
If you meet the requirements for excluding your cancellation of debt, you may exclude the applicable amount from income. However, the cancellation of debt must be reported to you and the IRS on Form 1099-C. You could then exclude the cancellation of debt with Form 982.
Yes, you do have to pay taxes on a debt settlement. The IRS views the portion of your debt forgiven after debt settlement as income and therefore taxes you on it. Forgiven debt (also known as canceled debt) is taxed at the same rate as your federal income tax bracket.
Most credit card companies are unlikely to forgive all your credit card debt, but they do occasionally accept a smaller amount in settlement of the balance due and forgive the rest. The credit card company might write off your debt, but this doesn't get rid of the debt—it's often sold to a collector.
Unpaid credit card debt is not forgiven after 7 years, however. You could still be sued for unpaid credit card debt after 7 years, and you may or may not be able to use the age of the debt as a winning defense, depending on the state's statute of limitations. In most states, it's between 3 and 10 years.
Most creditors are able to consider writing off their debt when they are convinced that your situation means that pursuing the debt is unlikely to be successful, especially if the amount is small.
How much your credit score will increase after a collection is deleted from your credit report varies depending on how old the collection is, the scoring model used, and the overall state of your credit. Depending on these factors, your score could increase by 100+ points or much less.
Paying a closed or charged off account will not typically result in immediate improvement to your credit scores, but can help improve your scores over time.
Most negative information generally stays on credit reports for 7 years. Bankruptcy stays on your Equifax credit report for 7 to 10 years, depending on the bankruptcy type. Closed accounts paid as agreed stay on your Equifax credit report for up to 10 years.
Normally income you received totaling over $600 for non-employee compensation (and/or at least $10 in royalties or broker payments) is reported on Form 1099-MISC. If you are self-employed, you are required to report your self-employment income if the amount you receive from all sources equals $400 or more.
A 1099-C form is a tax form that you may receive if you've had cancellation of debt or forgiven debt. However, sometimes a creditor or debt collection company may still try to collect on a debt on which you received the form.
It is possible to receive a tax refund even if you received a 1099 without paying in any estimated taxes. The 1099-MISC reports income received as an independent contractor or self-employed taxpayer rather than as an employee.
In general, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has 10 years to collect unpaid tax debt. After that, the debt is wiped clean from its books and the IRS writes it off. This is called the 10 Year Statute of Limitations. It is not in the financial interest of the IRS to make this statute widely known.
Settling a debt means you have negotiated with the lender and they have agreed to accept less than the full amount owed as final payment on the account. The account will be reported to the credit bureaus as "settled" or "account paid in full for less than the full balance."