Hello, We had a Theft by deception and my lawyer told me we should file it on the taxes since the person declared bankruptcy after the court awarded our settlement.

[jkes2syl]

We hired a company to install solar panels, water heater, HVAC, and the company only installed the solar while taking the company wrongfully took the full loan amount for all in the work 2018 and did the job without a valid license and damaged our property. The business went out of business and we sued her personally but it didn't go to court until 2020. We went to small claims and she never showed so we won the max of 10000 when we had 28500 in losses from the loan and damage to the property. A few weeks after we got the court settlement we found out she had filed for bankruptcy and we no longer have any hope of collecting or taking future action against her.

[macuser_22]

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 eliminated the causality and theft deduction for tax years 2018-2025.   It is possible that some states might still allow it for state tax.