When your lender reduces and “forgives” debt, it used to send a Form 1099 for the amount of reduced or forgiven debt. This amount needed to be included as income on your tax return. It is often called phantom income. But, because of new law, there’s a big exception when it comes to mortgage debt secured by your primary residence.

The Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007 allows you to exclude from your income the debt that’s left over after a foreclosure. The law applies for the calendar years 2007 through 2012.

You can find more information about the act in IRS Publication 4681, Canceled Debts, Foreclosures, Repossessions, and Abandonments, as well as in IRS news release IR-2008-17.

Call long-time Scottsdale, Arizona attorney William A. Miller for more information at 602.319.6899.

We also handle, Breach of contract, Non-compete agreements, Non-disclosure agreements, Employee theft and embezzlement, Insurance purchases and enforcement of policy coverage, Negotiation and/or enforcement of commercial leases, Negligence and gross negligence resulting in losses, Intentional acts causing a company to suffer damages, Tortious interference with contractual relationships, Unjust enrichment, Real Estate fraud, Consumer fraud, Conversion/Theft, Intentional and/or negligent misrepresentation, Business torts and Real estate title & escrow.

A new group has made even Karl Marx do ‘back flips’ in his state owned grave. Politicians get asked all the time to sign pledges — about war, abortion, taxes and countless other issues. Now, a coalition of far left legal groups is asking people to sign a new pledge “to support the whole Constitution.”

These groups have dishonored the document for years-and-years by appointing those Judges who ‘legislate from the bench’ and think the Constitution… lives and changes… which is code language for’ we are smarter than the Founding Fathers.’

These groups need to read the Federalist Papers.

Only one who believes in original intent is worthy of an appointment to the bench, otherwise you are saying that our culture i.e. South Park, Kardasians and Jersey Shore, should be our social benchmarks.

Arizona Trial & Business Law

William A. Miller, Esq.

William A. Miller, PLLC

8170 North 86th Place, Suite 208
Scottsdale, Arizona 85258

Mortgages bundled into securities were a favorite trick of Wall Street at the height of the big bubble. The securities changed hands frequently, the French bought billions, and the investment banks profiting from mortgage payments were often not the same parties that made the loans. At the heart of this disconnect was the Mortgage Electronic…

As a real estate lawyer working in Paradise Valley and Scottsdale for over 20 years, I have seen scores of families ship-wrecked by money. ‘Around the world, inherited wealth is hard to preserve, says an article from Intelligent Life, a quarterly published by one of my favorite journals  The Economist: Families that preserve their wealth over the generations are rare….

I just sent in my annual money for registration of a vintage car I own to the great State of California. I drive it too much, yet I cannot bear to drop the California plates. The car is classic, just like my memories of California. It is where I was born, but I was raised…