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How to Screw Up Your Bankruptcy

By Cathy Moran

Transferring assets to others on the eve of bankruptcy is the single, easiest way to mess up your bankruptcy case. Everyone seems to think If an asset isn’t titled to you,  it does not have to be disclosed in a bankruptcy filing. I hear it and see it in action, again and again. If it […]

Filed Under: How bankruptcy works

Chapter 13 Fixes Tax Trouble

By Cathy Moran

tax troubles

Tax troubles become manageable in Chapter 13 bankruptcy. 13 offers powerful alternatives to fighting with the IRS. Or hiding from the IRS. When you’ve got tax troubles, it’s easy to feel powerless. After all, you’re confronting a federal agency who wrote the  tax rules.  And they have hordes of employees with nothing else to do. […]

Filed Under: Featured, Taxes Tagged With: 2020

Mortgage Forbearance And The Hidden Gotcha: Escrow

By Cathy Moran

escrowed taxes forbearance

Got a mortgage forbearance? Seems like a relief. But watch out for the normally escrowed taxes after the forbearance is up. The CARES Act made forbearance on federally backed mortgages available for the asking. But no one talked about the escrow portion of the skipped mortgage payments. Federal guidance urged servicers to offer easy ways […]

Filed Under: Real property & mortgages Tagged With: 2020, covid-19

Annual IRA Contribution: Use It Or Lose It

By Cathy Moran

IRA contribution

Tax day approaches. With it comes the IRA contribution deadline. You expect to live for decades after you’re eligible for Social Security, don’t you? Then, you have only until April 15th to use the 2021 allowance for contributions to a tax-advantaged IRA. Miss making that 2021 contribution and it’s gone for all time. So, you […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights Tagged With: retirement, taxes

Will You Come Visit Me In Jail?

By Cathy Moran

arrest tax evasion

There’s a warrant out for my arrest, according to the message on my home phone. The charge is criminal tax evasion and tax fraud. The cops are coming for me, unless… Unless, the caller suggests, I call this number and send money. Who knew the feds could be bought off? Of course, it’s a scam. […]

Filed Under: Featured, Taxes Tagged With: 2017

SuperLawyer

By Cathy Moran

Cathy Moran Super Lawyer

I’ve been named a SuperLawyer among Bay Area bankruptcy lawyers. That makes 14 years running. It’s flattering, but probably not much more than that. The real measure of my skills is in the clients’ lives whom I’ve impacted and the young bankruptcy lawyers I’ve mentored. In the meantime, I’m waiting for my cape to be […]

Filed Under: Strictly California Tagged With: 2018

Consider The Clawback of Pre-bankruptcy Transfers Before Filing

By Cathy Moran

bankruptcy clawback

If you don’t understand clawback in bankruptcy, you might think that bankruptcy involves only what you have when you file. But that’s not how it works. Bankruptcy law gives a bankruptcy trustee to power to unwind transactions and transfers that diminish what the debtor has on the day the case is filed. The idea is […]

Filed Under: Considering Bankruptcy, How bankruptcy works Tagged With: 2022, avoidance, fraudulent transfer, preference

Does Your Corporation Really Protect You From Debt: A Checklist

By Cathy Moran

incorporate business

Business people usually incorporate their business to create a barrier between themselves and the debts of the business. They hope to insulate themselves from possible financial failure of the company. But all too many entrepreneurs stop working on the problem when the corporation is created. Failure to attend to the myriad of next steps can […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights Tagged With: business debts, incorporate

The Truth About Tax Liens After Bankruptcy

By Cathy Moran

liens after bankruptcy

We have a lien on your name.  Not your property, your name. That’s what the county tax collector told my client, years after he got his bankruptcy discharge. And that multi-thousand dollar lien claim threatened to sink the refinance of his house. Eventually, we got the county straightened out without going back to bankruptcy court. […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights, Life after bankruptcy, Taxes Tagged With: 2018, tax lien

Ten Best Bankruptcy Gems In 2021

By Cathy Moran

best bankruptcy advice

What did readers want to know about bankruptcy in 2021? Turns out, a bit of everything. Looking at the top 10 posts among the 750 posts on Bankruptcy Soapbox, they were equally curious about how bankruptcy works as they were about life after bankruptcy. Homesteads, taxes, judgment liens are all found in the top ten, […]

Filed Under: Featured

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Bankruptcy Basics

About The Soapbox

You’ve arrived at the Bankruptcy Soapbox, a resource of bankruptcy information and consumer law.

Soapbox is a companion site to Bankruptcy in Brief, where I try to be largely explanatory and even handed (Note I said “try”).

Here, I allow myself to tell stories and express strong opinions. We dig deeper into how to consider bankruptcy and navigate a bankruptcy case.

Moran Law Group
Bankruptcy specialists for individuals and small businesses in the San Francisco Bay Area

How Bankruptcy Works

Cheat Sheet For Passing Bankruptcy Means Test

The bankruptcy means test has a fatal weakness in its attempt to keep people out of bankruptcy. Like so much recently, it's health care. It's health care, in the future, to be paid before your creditors get any money in your bankruptcy. It works because, in a logic that only Congress could employ, the means … Read more

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