Don’t tidy up your financial affairs before consulting a bankruptcy lawyer. Your current mess may present opportunities to plan your bankruptcy for a better outcome. You may waste money or lose bankruptcy options when you make last minute changes to your situation without understanding how that situation plays out in bankruptcy. You’ll have the widest set […]
Personal Assets Can Be At Risk For Your Business Debts
Business debt can bleed over into an entrepreneur’s personal assets. Hearing me say that, my client was dumbfounded. He was aghast that the generous equity in the home he and his wife owned was at risk when his corporate business folded. That was not because the shareholder is liable for the corporation’s debts. A properly […]
What Everyone Knows About Bankruptcy: Not
Lots of people profess to know all about bankruptcy. Whether they have good information or not. But other professionals should know better than to advise people about the workings of bankruptcy. And if they don’t know better, they should be made to pay, in some exquisitely painful way, for the harm they inflict. The rack […]
No House, No Discharge When Chapter 13 Goes Off Script
Sound the alarm. What began as a trickle of Chapter 13 cases ending badly has become a torrent. More and more, bankruptcy judges are strictly enforcing the direct pay term of Chapter 13 plans. UPDATE: December, 2020 COVID relief bill provides an out for debtors who aren’t current on their mortgages, effective for a year. […]
What Is Really Scary About Debt Collectors
When I tell a client to stop paying credit cards, they look at me as though I’d suggested they jump into shark infested waters. “But they’ll start calling me”, they wail. “I’ll be sent to collection“. In their mind, “collection” is a real place, with manacles dangling, barred windows, and water dripping down moldy dungeon walls. Turns […]
Better Credit After Bankruptcy: Does Reaffirming A Car Loan Help?
Does reaffirming a car loan after bankruptcy help rebuild your credit? Rebuilding credit is the motivation that drives lots of debtors to waive the benefits of their discharge as to a car loan. A reaffirmation agreement has the debtor agreeing to be personally liable after the bankruptcy discharge for the car loan balance. Miss payments […]
How To Wipe Out Tax Penalties In Bankruptcy
Tax penalties seem like a further insult when you’re having trouble paying the tax itself. Everything seems subject to an additional penalty: failure to file timely; failure to pre pay sufficiently; failure to be accurate. They mount up quickly, often equaling the unpaid tax. Bankruptcy can not only eliminate your liability for certain taxes, it […]
Disarm The Debt Collector: Understanding The Weapons of Collection
You can stop a debt collector cold, wherever you live, using federal law. Consider that the weapons of a debt collector are fear, shame, and annoyance. The weapon delivery system is communication. Those weapons don’t have to be any more threatening than a plastic toy pistol, if you understand what’s going on. To use those […]
10 Things Tax Professionals Need To Know About Bankruptcy
Tax season approaches. Tax preparers stand a good chance of encountering clients who either have filed bankruptcy, or who may benefit from a bankruptcy filing. Here’s my list of bankruptcy nuggets that a good tax professional should have at hand. Debts discharged in bankruptcy don’t trigger cancellation of debt income– One of bankruptcy’s compelling features […]
How To Save Your House With Chapter 13 Bankruptcy
Saving your house ranks high on the list of reasons people file Chapter 13. The automatic stay stops foreclosures; Chapter 13 gives you time to fix the problem. Powerful stuff. But the stay and more time, alone, aren’t enough to save the day if you run afoul of other rules, written and unwritten, about homeownership […]
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