The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) swept in a tidal wave of
changes to federal tax rules just seven weeks before Congress
passed more legislation that could affect many taxpayers. The
Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 (BBA), signed into law on February 9,
2018, contains several tax-related provisions that extend or create
tax benefits for the 2017 tax year.
Tax Extenders
The BBA extends for one year a set of tax provisions, known as
extenders, which expired at the end of 2016. Below are the key
provisions that have been extended:
Exclusion of Discharge of Mortgage Debt
The BBA extends homeowners' ability to exclude from gross
income mortgage debt on a principal residence that was forgiven in
2017 (for example, as a result of a foreclosure, short sale or loan
modification). It also modifies the exclusion to make it apply to
debt discharged later than 2017 but according to a written
agreement that was entered into in 2017. Without the extended
provision, the amount of
