Under regular tax rules, when a lender forgives a debt — that is, relieves the borrower from having to pay it back — the amount of the debt is taxable income to the borrower.

A homeowner who has $100,000 in mortgage debt forgiven through a short sale, for example, would have to pay income tax on the $100,000.

This “cancellation of indebtedness” rule could have caused enormous financial hardship to the millions of homeowners whose homes were “underwater” during the home foreclosure crisis that began in 2007. To prevent this, Congress enacted the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007.

This law allowed homeowners to exclude from their taxable income up to $2 million of debt forgiven on their principal residence by a lender in a short sale, mortgage restructuring, or forgiven in a foreclosure. This law was never intended to be permanent. It was originally scheduled to expire at the end of 2009.

However, it was extended for an additional four years. It will now expire at the end of 2013. The law could be extended again, but there appears to be little urgency in Congress to do so. That means starting on Jan. 1, 2014, there is a good chance that the old rules on forgiveness of home loan debt will come back into force.

See more at: http://www.inman.com/2013/11/25/good-news-for-california-homeowners-facing-short-sales/#sthash.WbCTNyDm.dpuf