Childs: A Missing Form 1099-C Did Not Create a Private Tax-Reporting Lawsuit

If a creditor charges off an account but sends no Form 1099-C, you may be unsure whether the debt remains collectible or whether your tax return needs attention. In Childs, the consumer tried to turn the missing form into a lawsuit against several banks. The federal judge dismissed the claims addressed by the pending motions: The tax-reporting provision supplied no private right to sue, and the complaint could not borrow damages remedies from separate statutes without a basis for applying them.

The complaint’s factual allegation was the failure to provide the form

Michael Childs brought the case without a lawyer. Judge Gerald Austin McHugh understood his grievance to be that creditors had charged off debts but had not provided Form 1099-C, which Childs believed would let him verify the debts were no longer owed. The complaint mentioned the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and the Fair Credit Reporting Act, but its factual account alleged only a failure to provide the tax form after charge-off.

The distinction mattered because references to collector harassment, credit denial and reporting errors appeared as descriptions of injury. The judge read Childs as seeking those statutes’ remedies for consequences he attributed to the banks’ failure to send the form, rather than alleging facts establishing direct violations by the banks under those statutes. Childs explains that reading of the complaint.

A reporting duty and a private right to sue are different questions

Section 6050P of the Internal Revenue Code requires financial entities to report certain discharges or cancellations to the IRS and provide the debtor a copy. The court concluded that the provision creates no private right of action. Even accepting Childs’s allegations as true, the claimed failure to provide the form therefore did not state a claim for relief under that provision.

The judge cited Gardner v. Credit Corp. Solutions, Inc., No. 24-296, 2024 WL 4820229, at *5 (N.D. Tex. Oct. 30, 2024), along with the cited Switzer and CPI Amherst decisions, for that rule. These authorities supported the distinction between a statutory reporting obligation and a consumer’s own damages action. The citations and application appear together in Childs.

Other statutes’ remedies could not supply the missing claim

The court gave a second reason for dismissal. Even if the tax provision had supplied a cause of action, Childs had identified no authority permitting him to use remedies from wholly separate federal statutes as its measure of damages. There was also no apparent basis in the complaint for applying the FDCPA or FCRA to the parties sued.

Merely naming a statute in the injuries section did not connect these defendants’ alleged conduct to a claim under that law. The reasoning was about the complaint actually filed: Its asserted wrong remained the missing Form 1099-C, and its references to other harms did not establish another route to the requested relief.

The court granted the represented defendants’ motions with prejudice

The January 26, 2026 memorandum concluded that amendment would be futile and granted the pending motions to dismiss with prejudice. That means the dismissed claims were not being left open for another amended complaint. The final page of Childs states that disposition.

A separate footnote identified “Card Services,” an entity without a physical address that the judge understood as a subcontractor processing transactions for card-issuing banks. The court said service on it was uncertain and no appearance had been entered on its behalf. The disposition should therefore be described in terms of the represented defendants’ pending motions rather than as a finding resolving every possible claim against every listed entity. Childs identifies that procedural detail.

This Eastern District of Pennsylvania memorandum addresses the lawsuit and allegations before it. For a consumer seeking help, the next useful step is to separate the alleged reporting failure, any actual collection or credit-reporting conduct, and the tax treatment of a canceled debt. Our missing-Form-1099-C guide addresses those distinct practical questions using IRS guidance.