Received a 1099misc for a bad debt write off from a company which now shows as income. I didn't use that as an expense in previous taxes as a deduction. how do i now?

[rosinrd]

The 1099misc was for advertisement and charge backs from cancellations. After I cancelled my contract with the company they sent me to collections to try and recoup the money and after so long they wrote of that debt and sent me a fairly large 1099 misc for this past year showing it now as income. Being that I cancelled my contract with the company back in 2017 I have very little deductions I can apply to this 1099 to not have it be such a high tax burden of money owed. Since this is listed under other income with the example of "Bad Debts you deducted in previous years that were repaid (whole or in part) this year" how do I go about listing the 1099 since I didn't originally include the expense in my 2016 or 2017 taxes because I had enough write offs it didn't matter at that point and I just left it out. Is there a way to include that expense now or not have to include the 1099misc in my taxes this year?

[PhyllisG]

If the Form 1099-MISC reflects the 2018 tax year, then you will have to include the bad debt as income for tax year 2018. Furthermore, you generally cannot deduct expenses from a previous year on the current year's tax return. You can only deduct expenses in the year that they were paid.