Can Credit Card Debt Affect Your Tax Return? | MMI (2024)

FAQs

Can Credit Card Debt Affect Your Tax Return? | MMI? ›

Credit card debt will not prevent you from receiving your tax refund, but it can affect how much of a refund you receive if you had a debt settlement. If you think you may owe taxes due to a debt settlement, start planning now so that you can save for what you will owe.

The TOP is the only way your refund can be garnished; private creditors such as credit card companies don't have access to your tax refund. Moreover, only certain types of government debts are eligible for TOP. These include: past-due court-ordered child support payments.

Credit card interest is not tax-deductible for personal expenses. The government stopped allowing a tax deduction for credit card interest in the 1980s. Interest on student loans, mortgages, home equity loans, and business expenses are still tax-deductible.

There are only four types of debt for which the federal government will withhold your tax refund or send it to one of your creditors. These debts include past-due federal taxes, state income taxes, child support payments and amounts you owe to other federal agencies, such as federal student loans you fail to pay.

The lender is usually required to report the amount of the canceled debt to you and the IRS on a Form 1099-C, Cancellation of Debt.

According to the IRS, nearly any debt you owe that is canceled, forgiven or discharged becomes taxable income to you. You should receive a Form 1099-C, "Cancellation of Debt," from the lender that forgave the debt.

If you have loans that have been in repayment for more than 20 or 25 years, those loans may immediately qualify for forgiveness. Borrowers who have reached 20 or 25 years (240 or 300 months) worth of eligible payments for IDR forgiveness will see their loans forgiven as they reach these milestones.

A debt becomes worthless when the surrounding facts and circ*mstances indicate there's no reasonable expectation that the debt will be repaid. To show that a debt is worthless, you must establish that you've taken reasonable steps to collect the debt.

Outside of bankruptcy or debt settlement, there are really no other ways to completely wipe away credit card debt without paying. Making minimum payments and slowly chipping away at the balance is the norm for most people in debt, and that may be the best option in many situations.

You must file the 1099-C form received from the lender if you had more than $600 of debt canceled or forgiven. There are exceptions that apply if the debt falls into one of the excluded categories. The lender is also responsible for filing a copy of the form with the IRS and retaining a separate copy for their records.

Can credit card companies garnish your tax refund? ›

If you owe money to a credit card company, they cannot garnish your refund to cover your debt. However, they can put a lien on your bank account and seize your funds after they're deposited.

The leverage effect describes the effect of debt on the return on equity: Additional debt can increase the return on equity for the owner. This applies as long as the total return on the project is higher than the cost of additional debt.

If you owe money to a federal or state agency, the federal government may use part or all of your federal tax refund to repay the debt. This is called a tax refund offset. If your tax refund is lower than you calculated, it may be due to a tax refund offset for an unpaid debt such as child support.

In conducting the tax audit, the IRS will request to see receipts, invoices, records, credit card statements, cancelled checks, and other documents. During this process, the IRS checks whether you stated income and expenses accurately on your income tax return.

When you settle a credit card debt, the lender or debt buyer may be required to file Form 1099-C, Cancellation of Debt, if they canceled $600 or more of the debt you owe. In addition, the IRS considers the forgiven amount as income, which means you may need to pay taxes on it.

The simple answer to this question is yes, you can get your credit card debt written off — at least in certain cases. But as you may imagine, there's nothing simple about that process, which often includes negotiations with credit card companies and debt collection agencies.

If you owe a federal tax debt from a prior tax year, a debt to another federal agency, or certain debts under state law, the IRS may keep (offset) some or all your tax refund to pay your debt. In fact, in many situations the IRS is legally required to forward your refund to pay the debt.

Could a creditor in California even seek to intercept someone's tax return? As a general rule, the only debts that can lead to the state intercepting someone's federal or state tax refund are government debts. Someone who owes income tax or property tax debts might never see the deposit of their income tax refund.

If your refund exceeds your total balance due on all outstanding tax liabilities including accruals, you'll receive a refund of the excess unless you owe certain other past-due amounts, such as state income tax, child support, a student loan, or other federal nontax obligations which are offset against any refund.

As credit card balances become increasingly difficult to pay down, people may turn to debt settlement for relief. If you've settled debt—with the help of a debt settlement company or on your own—you'll owe federal taxes on the amount of debt that was canceled or forgiven.