Congress is now back from its summer vacation, so the burning financial question on thousands of homeowners’ minds right now is this: Are you finally going to help the consumers who are underwater on their mortgages and have already accepted a principal reduction by their lenders?
Under current federal tax law, when the homeowners accept reductions in what they owe, the amount forgiven by the bank gets reported to the IRS, and the owner is hit with taxes as if it were ordinary income.
The Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007 was created to help distressed homeowners; that were faced with taxes after a Principal reduction; however this law has already expired Dec. 31, 2013.
If Congress does not extend the law retroactively thousands of underwater homeowners could be hit with tax burdens they may not be able to handle. We hope for the Best!