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» VISIT US ONLINE @ DSNEWS.COM 87 IN THE NEWS North Carolina Bill Would Permit Homeowners to Exclude Forgiven Mortgage Debt from Tax Liability A bill approved by a committee in the North Carolina House of Representatives would allow distressed homeowners to omit forgiven principal mortgage loan debt when reporting tax income at the end of the year, according to a media report. e bill, which was just approved by the House committee, was actually a rewritten version of a bill that passed in the North Carolina State Senate last month that would require taxpayers to count forgiven mortgage debt—the remaining mortgage loan balance when a home is sold in a "short sale" to avoid foreclosure—as part of their gross income when filing tax returns. e rewritten North Carolina bill would allow homeowners to exclude the forgiven debt from their taxable income. For example, according to a report from the Charlotte Observer, if a homeowner had $20,000 worth of principal mortgage debt forgiven, that homeowner would have to pay $1,160 in state taxes if that forgiven debt is listed as taxable income. According to the report from the Ob- server, about 4,000 homeowners would be affected by the rewritten bill. North Carolina Representative Bill Brawley, a Republican who is the chairman of the House Financial Committee, said if the rewritten bill passes—and he expects it to, even though most Republicans who control the House don't want it to—then he esti- mates it would cost the state about $14 million in lost revenue. For years in response to the housing crisis, North Carolina permitted homeowners to exclude forgiven mortgage debt as taxable income, in accordance with similar laws the U.S. Congress enacted for federal income taxes. e Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007, originally signed into law by President George W. Bush, relieved distressed homeowners from having to pay taxes on forgiven mortgage debt for the three calendar years of 2007 through 2009. at tax exemption was extended three more years until the end of 2012 with the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, and it was extended until the end of 2013 with the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012. Just before Christmas last year, President Obama signed a House bill into law that retroactively extended the tax break until the end of 2014. With the number of foreclosures steadily declining nationwide since 2010, it remains to be seen if that tax break will be extended into 2015 for federal income taxes. Mississippi RANK: 20 90+ Day Foreclosure Unemployment Delinquency Rate Rate Rate NOVEMBER 2014 5.22% 1.69% 7.2 YEAR AGO 5.63% 1.96% 7.8 YEAR-OVER-YEAR CHANGE -7.2% -14.0% -0.6 Top County WINSTON COUNTY 90+ Day Foreclosure Delinquency Rate Rate NOVEMBER 2014 6.55% 5.76% YEAR AGO 10.23% 2.36% YEAR-OVER-YEAR CHANGE -36.0% 144.8% Top Core-Based Statistical Area NATCHEZ, MS-LA 90+ Day Foreclosure Delinquency Rate Rate NOVEMBER 2014 5.17% 3.43% YEAR AGO 5.08% 3.13% YEAR-OVER-YEAR CHANGE 1.7% 9.5% note: The 90+ day delinquecy rate is the percentage of outstanding mortgage loans that are seriously delinquent. The foreclosure rate is the percentage of outstanding mortgage loans currently in foreclosure. State rank is based on the November 2014 foreclosure rate. All fi gures are rounded to the nearest decimal. The unemployment rate refl ects preliminary November 2014 fi gures released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. All other data courtesy of LPS Data & Analytics. North Carolina RANK: 34 90+ Day Foreclosure Unemployment Delinquency Rate Rate Rate NOVEMBER 2014 2.36% 0.93% 5.5 YEAR AGO 2.70% 1.26% 6.9 YEAR-OVER-YEAR CHANGE -12.8% -26.3% -1.4 Top County HERTFORD COUNTY 90+ Day Foreclosure Delinquency Rate Rate NOVEMBER 2014 5.74% 3.21% YEAR AGO 5.94% 3.50% YEAR-OVER-YEAR CHANGE -3.3% -8.2% Top Core-Based Statistical Area OXFORD, NC 90+ Day Foreclosure Delinquency Rate Rate NOVEMBER 2014 4.85% 2.01% YEAR AGO 5.09% 1.45% YEAR-OVER-YEAR CHANGE -4.8% 38.3% note: The 90+ day delinquecy rate is the percentage of outstanding mortgage loans that are seriously delinquent. The foreclosure rate is the percentage of outstanding mortgage loans currently in foreclosure. State rank is based on the November 2014 foreclosure rate. All fi gures are rounded to the nearest decimal. The unemployment rate refl ects preliminary November 2014 fi gures released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. All other data courtesy of LPS Data & Analytics. Oklahoma RANK: 15 90+ Day Foreclosure Unemployment Delinquency Rate Rate Rate NOVEMBER 2014 2.06% 1.99% 4.2 YEAR AGO 2.27% 2.31% 5.4 YEAR-OVER-YEAR CHANGE -9.3% -14.2% -1.2 Top County ADAIR COUNTY 90+ Day Foreclosure Delinquency Rate Rate NOVEMBER 2014 3.98% 7.41% YEAR AGO 4.57% 7.64% YEAR-OVER-YEAR CHANGE -13.0% -3.0% Top Core-Based Statistical Area MCALESTER, OK 90+ Day Foreclosure Delinquency Rate Rate NOVEMBER 2014 3.13% 4.64% YEAR AGO 3.11% 4.16% YEAR-OVER-YEAR CHANGE 0.7% 11.6% note: The 90+ day delinquecy rate is the percentage of outstanding mortgage loans that are seriously delinquent. The foreclosure rate is the percentage of outstanding mortgage loans currently in foreclosure. State rank is based on the November 2014 foreclosure rate. All fi gures are rounded to the nearest decimal. The unemployment rate refl ects preliminary November 2014 fi gures released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. All other data courtesy of LPS Data & Analytics. The year-over-year percentage point change in January 2015 for North Carolina's foreclosure inventory, from 1.1 percent down to 0.8 percent. The national average for the month was 1.4 percent. Source: CoreLogic STAT INSIGHT 0.3%

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