My husband and I separated in 9/2003 and I decided to surrender our home with a 1st and 2nd mortgage to Beneficial. I communicated this intention to Beneficial in November 2003, but they never sent the necessary paperwork. In 2006, I received a 1099-C for the 2nd mortgage and paid taxes on the forgiven debt. In 2015, I received another 1099-C for the 1st mortgage. The house was sold in 2005, but we never received any paperwork. Beneficial stopped reporting the debt in 2009. How can they claim forgiven debt for 2014, 12 years after the initial decision, and do I have to pay taxes on that forgiven debt?

November 14th, 2023

I run a small business and rent space in a group store where I live. Each of the vendors in this space pays a monthly rental fee as well as a 25% commission on sales to the owner of the group store, who in turn uses this income to pay rent to the landlord/property owner. The vendors' rental and commission fees are taken out of the first of our two payouts per month, so these payments reflect our net income. The store owner, however, refers to our payouts as our gross income and tells us not to claim our total sales income, nor our rent or commission payments, on our taxes. Even though cash does not change hands when we pay these fees, there is a paper trail, so I believe we should be doing a full accounting of our income and expenses. I wonder, is there an advantage for the store owner if her tenants do not claim our actual gross income or our rent/commission expenses? Is she able to write off more expenses or avoid additional taxes with this set-up? (Or put another way, is it a DISadvantage to me if I only claim net income?) Or alternatively, since the bottom line numbers don't change whether she calls it rental income or something else, does it all come out in the wash?

July 19th, 2024

I bought a 2002 Hyundai Santa Fe for $5100 to use as an Uber driver. Can I expense the full cost of the car under Section 179, even though Uber let me go in November 2015?

May 14th, 2023

My elderly parents (85+) receive about $1500 per month in Social Security payments and have about 250K retirement money saved in regular accounts. They have not filed tax returns for years. They own their home and would like to rent out a room to a family member. Would this rental income affect their tax filing requirements, Social Security payments, or Medicare premiums?

July 27th, 2024

I inherited about $120,000 from a great aunt in 2015. All the money went into my 401k. Is this taxable income for 2015 or is it only taxable income when I start to withdraw it as retirement income?

April 19th, 2023