I am collecting letters from debt collectors that threaten the issuance of a 1099-C (forgiveness of debt). There are a lot of different strategies that collectors are using to collect money using the threat of tax liability for foregiveness of debt. Often the collectors mis-state the law and the level of taxpayer responsibility. There are also some interesting legal issues now regarding the collection of accounts after a 1099-C has been issued. This should be completely banned, but at present it is not necessarily illegal. By the way, this is an issue where your vote in November can make a difference to your pocket book. If you vote for representatives who put the interests of Wall Street ahead of the interest of working people, you are going to end up with laws that allow banks to charge off a debt as a bad debt, so the bank takes a tax deduction, the consumer incurs a tax liability, then the bank sells the loan to a bottom feeder debt collector. The bottom feeder sues the consumer, gets a default judgment for the full amount of the debt plus interest and court costs. That’s the kind of junk that is going on right now, and it really has to stop. Anyway, if you receied a 1099 letter from a debt collector, feel free to send it to me. If you want a referral to a NACA consumer attorney in your area, I will be happy to find one for you.