Jump to content

Loan

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 66.194.217.222 (talk) at 18:09, 22 September 2008 (→‎United States taxes). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

A loan is a type of debt. This article focuses exclusively on monetary loans, although, in practice, any material object might be lent. Like all debt instruments, a loan entails the redistribution of financial assets over time, between the lender and the borrower.

The borrower initially does receive an amount of money from the lender, which they pay back, usually but not always in regular installments, to the lender. This service is generally provided at a cost, referred to as interest on the debt. A loan is of the annuity type if the amount paid periodically (for paying off and interest together) is fixed.

A borrower may be subject to certain restrictions known as loan covenants under the terms of the loan.

Acting as a provider of loans is one of the principal tasks for financial institutions. For other institutions, issuing of debt contracts such as bonds is a typical source of funding. Bank loans and credit are one way to increase the money supply.

Legally, a loan is a contractual promise of a debtor to repay a sum of money in exchange for the promise of a creditor to give another sum of money.


Abuses in lending

Predatory lending is one form of abuse in the granting of loans. It usually involves granting a loan in order to put the borrower in a position that one can gain advantage over him or her. Where the moneylender is not authorised, it could be considered a loan shark.

[[usurious interest rates and making money out of frivolous "extra charges". [1]

Abuses can also take place in the form of the customer abusing the lender by not repaying the loan or with an intent to defraud the lender.

==exception here is interest paid on a home mortgage.[2]

Income from discharge of indebtedness

Although a loan does not start out as income to the borrower, it becomes income to the borrower if the borrower is discharged of indbtedness. [3] pus, if a debt is discharged, then the borrower essentially has received income equal to the aount of the indebtedness. The Internal Revenue Code lists “Income from Discharge of Indebtedness” in Section 62(a)(12) as a source of gross income. its my icecream Example: X owes Y $50,000. If Y discharges the indebtdness, then a no longer owes b $50,000. For purposes of calculating income, this should be treated the same way as if Y gave X $50,000.

For a more detailed description of the “discharge of indebtedness”, look at Section 108 (Cancellation of Debt (COD) Incum) of the Internal Revenue Code.[4]

See also

References

  1. ^ Credit card holders pay Rs 6,000 cr 'extra' May 03, 2007
  2. ^ Id.
  3. ^ Id.; 26 U.S.C. 61(a)(12)(2007).
  4. ^ Id.; 26 U.S.C. 108(2007).