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Will Education Debt be Forgiven?

Will Education Debt be Forgiven?

One of the Democratic Presidential candidates, Elizabeth Warren, says that if elected, she will circumvent Congress using existing legal powers available through the Department of Education. According to her plan, she would have up to $50,000 in debt for 95% of student loan borrowers cancelled, impacting approximately 42 million individuals.

Note: This proposal only impacts individuals with government education loans and does not help the families of students who have mortgaged their homes to pay tuition.

Total current government student loans amount to approximately $1.6 trillion; this number is growing daily and affecting some 45 million borrowers, exceeded only by mortgage debt. It is also higher than the amount of national credit card debt and auto loan debt. 

There are tax ramifications that come along with debt forgiveness. Barring specific tax exclusions, forgiven debt is taxable. Thus, an individual who has $50,000 of government student loan debt forgiven has to include the $50,000 of cancellation of debt (COD) income as taxable income for the year. 

Current tax law provides only four possible exclusions of COD income, which will generally not apply.  They include:

  • Insolvency Exclusion – Individuals can exclude COD income to extent that their liabilities exceed their assets.
  • Death or Disability Exclusion – For years 2018 through 2025, discharge of an eligible student loan because of the student’s death or total and permanent disability does not result in COD income.
  • Health Services Corps – Discharge of an eligible student loan because the student participated in the Health Services Corps program to increase the availability of health care services in underserved or health professional shortage areas does not result in COD income.
  • Closed Schools – No COD income is owed for the discharge of a debt under the Department of Education’s Defense to Repayment or Closed School programs for loans taken out to finance attendance at schools owned by Corinthian Colleges, Inc. and American Career Institutes, Inc. as well as loans discharged based on a settlement of a legal cause of action against Corinthian Colleges, Inc., American Career Institutes, Inc., or certain private lenders.

The plan will undoubtedly run afoul of Congress, where Republicans and some Democrats are concerned with the $1.6 trillion price tag.

UPDATE:

Within hours after the original article was posted the IRS released Revenue Procedure RP-2020-11 providing relief from COD income for taxpayers who took out federal or private student loans to finance attendance at a nonprofit or for-profit school and had those loans forgiven. To avoid confusion the IRS is strongly recommending lenders do not issue 1099-Cs for these forgiven student loans. 

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Lee Reams, BSME, EA

Lee Reams, BSME, EA

Editor-in-Chief

Besides his role at CountingWorks as an educator and speaker to thousands of accountants nationwide, Lee manages a technical research service for a large group of tax accountants which sharpens his technical skills. Lee served on the Board of Blackline Systems, is a former Board of Director for the California Tax Education Council, is a Past President of the San Fernando Valley Chapter of Enrolled Agents, Member and Past Director for the California Society of Enrolled Agents.

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