Many people misunderstood the tax obligations with short sales. If you read the debt relief act the rules were still pretty stringent but relief is/was available as long as you didn’t cash out and blow the money on non home related items. I have not read the new stuff enough to make an informed statement on the tax liability.
The biggest thing in my book is having a PRE approved price before the short sale. I don’t see how the service orgs can pull that off. I will be amazed if it works.