When a bankruptcy discharged debts should a bank send a IRS 1099 as debt forgiven and show it as income?
My company filed for and was discharged in bankruptcy in Aug 2006. Bank of America sent an IRS 1099 showing they forgave the debt in Aug of 2007. They showed an amount of over ,000.00 as income due to the "forgiveness". I called them and they refused to correct the 1099 and said it was my problem not their's and advised that I just throw it away since the company no longer exists and I will NOT be filing a return on it. The Company was an "S Corp" so when it existed the money flowed through to me personally. Should B of A have sent this a year late? Should I just throw it away (doen't sound smart to me)? Is there an IRS form that I can fill out to correct the error if there was one. Didn't bankruptcy discharge and eliminate this debt without them forgiving it? By the way B of A continued to send collection notices many times after the discharge, so this seems to be a stabdard with them.
May 30th, 2009 at 12:43 am
The bank was correct in sending you a 1099-C. They cancelled the debt and you were the person not paying it back.
The bank was incorrect in telling you to throw the 1099-C away. When you file your tax return, you will postpone the 1099-C cancellation of debt income by filing a form 982. If you have remaining assets the form has you write them down in value. When you sell these at a later date, you may have taxable ordinary income then.
If you total your remaining assets (not only business, but all personal ones as well) by their book value and compare that to your total liabilities, you only reduce the book value to the point it equals the liabilities. Any further COD is permanently eliminated.