if you settled a debt on a home or with a lender most likely you will rec one of two types of forms from the bank.

in some cases where property is involved one may receive both form 1099-A (Acquisition or Abandonment of Secured Property) and form 1099-C (Cancellation of Debt). the 1099Cs are usually used for credit card write offs or other types of third party lenders. in most cases when dealing with property the lenders issues or should issue the A's for the acquisition but can in some cases either or both can be issued. remember this : your gain or loss is reported on schedule D (of your tax forms), for homes that were personal residences. as a reminder, the IRS does not allow people to claim a loss on personal residences. any gain (and I have seen situations where a foreclosure results in gains being reported) on personal residences can be offset by the capital gains exclusion for a main home. so keep in mind just how much you put into the place through out the years!

while many want to rush to their attys to get some answers when they receive what seemingly are these scary 1099's one will usually come to find out that most attys know very little about taxes unless they are tax attys...even many accountants up until a few years ago rarely saw 1099 C A S etc Misc are more common and easier to deal with.

the tax form 982 covers and is the insolvency information you communicate to the irs. when and if you get either an A or C instructions for filling out form 982 can be found in IRS Publication 4681, including the insolvency worksheet, which also include instructions on how to fill out form 982: reduction of tax attributes due to discharge of indebtedness -off hand is as follows:

if you had a debt cancelled during the tax year, you generally need to report this as income on your return. however, if any of the following apply, you may be eligible to exclude the cancellation of debt from your income. you may exclude the cancellation of indebtedness if it was as follows:

1. discharge of qualified principal residence indebtedness
2. discharge of indebtedness in a title 11 case
3. discharge of indebtedness to the extent insolvent (not in a title 11 case)
4. discharge of qualified farm indebtedness
5. discharge of qualified real property business indebtedness

with most cases for people on this this forum, either 1,2, or 3 would be applicable.