Personal income taxes: gross income exclusion: mortgage debt forgiveness.

The Personal Income Tax Law provides for modified conformity to specified provisions of federal income tax law relating to the exclusion of the discharge of qualified principal residence indebtedness, as defined, from an individual's income if that debt is discharged after January 1, 2007, and before January 1, 2014, as provided. Existing law limits the amount excludable from gross income to $500,000 or to $250,000 if the taxpayer is a married individual filing a separate return. The federal Tax Increase Prevention Act of 2014 extended the operation of those provisions to debt that is discharged before January 1, 2015. The federal Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015 extended the operation of those provisions to debt that is discharged before January 1, 2017, and provides that its discharge provisions apply to specified written agreements entered into before January 1, 2017. This bill would conform to that additional discharge provision relating to specified written agreements and the federal extensions, some of which would be applied retroactively, and would limit the amount excludable under this provision to $250,000 or to $125,000 if the taxpayer is a married individual filing a separate return. The bill would discharge indebtedness for related penalties and interest and would make legislative findings and declarations regarding the public purpose served by the bill. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.