Can you show a loss on a personal note? I had a note for $240,000 and through a foreclosure process they only paid me $140,000. Can I show a $100,000 loss?

[mdli129279]

The note was carried on a piece of land that I sold him. I had a Deed of Trust where the land was attached to the note. He stopped paying me the monthly payments so I foreclosed on the property/note.

[Critter-3]

You really should get a local tax pro to help you with the recomputation of the basis on this foreclosed property. You did not loose money on the deal since you got the property back which you can sell again. 

[Carl]

You "really" need to see a tax pro on this, and one that is familiar with foreclosures - not all are well versed on this scenario.

Since you got the land back, you don't have a loss. But you do have a change in cost basis that is not always that simple to figure correctly. Seek professional help for this.

[Mike9241]

you could look at IRS pub 537. 

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p537.pdf 

[Opus 17]

Short answer, NO.  You can't deduct the $100,000 as lost income because it was never reported in your income in the first place.  (You can't take out what was never there.)

On top of that, you probably have taxable income, related to the fact that you received $140,000 AND you received the property back which you can sell again.