Northern California Bankruptcy Lawyer

On The Bankruptcy Soapbox

The Soap Box

Skip Bankruptcy’s Means Test

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skip means test

The couple was despondent when another bankruptcy attorney told them that, despite $100,000 in old taxes, they couldn’t file Chapter 7.

This fine fellow told them that the means test showed they had $3000 of disposable income per month.  A Chapter 7 would be an abuse of  bankruptcy under the law.

Only Chapter 13 was possible, he said, and the monthly payment would be $3000.  That didn’t seem like any kind of relief from debts.

Only he never apparently considered the gating question:  were their debts were “primarily consumer debts”.

He forgot the gotcha baked into the means test:  it only applies to ***consumers.***

Only consumers have to prove they are worthy of the Chapter 7 discharge.

Folks with primarily business debts or, taxes aren’t subject to the means test.

So, lots of disposable income is not a bar to Chapter 7 when your debts are primarily taxes.

Who takes the means test

So, just why are some above median income families not subject to the means test?

Bankruptcy Code § 707 allows a judge to dismiss a Chapter 7 case  filed by an individual debtor under this chapter whose debts are primarily consumer debts …. if it finds that the granting of relief would be an abuse of the provisions of this chapter.

The means test is the tool for determining whether the debtor is (supposedly) able to pay their debts.

But,  the means test only applies to debtors whose debts are “primarily consumer debts”.

So, we need to know…

What is consumer debt

The Bankruptcy Code defines consumer debt:

 The term “consumer debt” means debt incurred by an individual primarily for a personal, family, or household purpose. § 101(8)

So, the gating question is:  why was the debt “incurred?”

Tort damages aren’t consumer debts either

Obviously, business debt was not incurred for a personal purpose.

Further, taxes are not incurred by choice, say the cases;  taxes are imposed by government.  And therefor, not a consumer debt.

And that’s the rule, even when the taxes are on personal, household income, or property taxes on the family home.

So, if the total of taxes (and other, non-consumer debt) is greater than the balance of the other debt a person owes, their debt is not “primarily” consumer debt.

And the means test ONLY applies to debtors whose debts are primarily consumer debts.

Skip the means test

The couple who were told that they couldn’t file Chapter 7 because of their generous income, in fact, can file Chapter 7 because their debt is overwhelmingly back taxes.

It doesn’t matter that most of their taxes are so old that the tax is dischargeable.

If it’s tax, it isn’t consumer debt.  And they don’t have to take the test.

More

Cheat sheet to pass means test

Discharging taxes

 

Old Tax Liability Discharged In Bankruptcy, If….

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metal-keyDischarging tax debt in bankruptcy gets lots of families out of a horrible hole.

The tax debt is large, swelled by interest and penalties.  Collection often compromised their ability to stay current on more recent years.

Bankruptcy can save their bacon because taxes found on returns due three years ago or more are generally dischargeable in bankruptcy.

But there is a key that opens the door to discharging taxes in bankruptcy.

When old taxes live on

The man in my office expected to wipe out his liability for  several years of taxes that were now four and five years old in a  Chapter 13 case.  Chapter 13 would allow him five years to pay the more recent, non dischargeable taxes through his reorganization plan.

Only the rule for discharging taxes in bankruptcy has three prongs:

  • the three year rule,
  • the two year rule, and
  • the 240 day rule.

Turns out that the returns for those four and five year old taxes were never filed.  He prepared the returns, but didn’t file them because he couldn’t pay the tax due.

So those old taxes failed the two year rule:  

 Exclamation-icons-2taxes for years where the return wasn’t filed on time are only dischargeable when the return has been on file for two years.

The story gets worse:  because the taxes are not priority claims under the bankruptcy code, they don’t get the same special treatment that the more recent tax debts get as priority claims.

The non dischargeable but non priority taxes will get the same fractional payment in Chapter 13 that the medical bills will get, but the tax will survive the bankruptcy and be collectible later because these taxes are non dischargeable.

So, even if you can’t pay the tax now, not filing the return is not a meaningful long term strategy.

File the return and get the two year clock ticking for bankruptcy relief.

Four reasons to file even if you can’t pay

Outside of bankruptcy, the 10 year statute of limitations on collection of federal taxes doesn’t start running until the taxes are assessed by filing a return.

Filing returns without any records

Got no records for the unfiled tax year?  That’s often why a tax return goes unfiled.  Without records, it’s hard to calculate what you owe, or what’s owed to you.

The IRS can help.

You can request a Wage & Income transcript from the IRS for free.  It will tell you what items of income have been reported to the IRS from your employer, bank, or mortgage lender.

Under certain circumstances, that may be as good as you can do.  If you get better information after you’ve filed the return, you can amend the return for three years from filing.

The key is to get a return on file and get those assorted time periods running.

Image: Erulisseuiin

Which Creditors Should You Really Fear?

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A debt collector’s threat to sue you usually produces terror.

You’re scared about losing your wages, or your bank accounts.  Scared about being served with process at work.

The threat of a lawsuit often triggers the first call to my law office. Some collector has said he will take 25% of your wages, or will serve a lawsuit, or even will send the account to collection.  You panic.

Can I file bankruptcy today? the caller asks.

So, are debt collectors really that scary?

Lawsuits don’t happen overnight

Remember the idea of due process from high school civics?

Due process assures that the threatened collection suit is not happening immediately.  The threat is weeks, if not months, away.

Due process, at its simplest form in a collection suit, means that you get legal notice and a right to contest the claim of any creditor before they take your property.

All about judgments and how they work

So, the only way the average unsecured creditor can take your wages or your assets is to file a lawsuit.  Then it must serve the complaint on you (there’s your notice) .  And you get  an opportunity  to resist the suit by filing an answer.

Only when the court issues a judgment in the creditor’s favor can it seize your property.

In short, you will see this kind of creditor coming long before they have a legal right to take anything from you.

The scary creditors operate by different rules

Two kinds of creditors don’t have to sue you to take your money.  These are the folks that might take your money today.

Due process works a little differently for your bank and the taxing authorities.

Your bank has a right of offset under state law: it owes you the return of your money on deposit and you owe the bank on a line of credit or other loan.

Because you and the bank each owe the other money, the bank can offset the money you owe it from what it holds for you.  No lawsuit is required.

The right to offset, or set off, mutual debts is often found in state law.  It is also found in your deposit agreement with the bank.

Due process is satisfied because the bank’s right is found in either the agreement between you and it, or in state law.

Tax collectors empowered by law

The IRS also has a right to levy on your account without filing suit for unpaid taxes.

The tax code has requirements about giving you notice of your tax debt and even notice of their intent to levy.  But the IRS does not have to file a lawsuit to collect its money.

So, in my book, the bank and the IRS are the creditors that have real powers to snatch your money on short or no notice.

The collector for a credit card company wants you to think they have immediate and horrific tools to collect their bill, but it isn’t so.

It’s just so much easier for them to collect if they gloss over your right to due process.

More

What to do if you’re sued

Discharging taxes in bankruptcy

Fending off debt collectors

The secret bankruptcy alternative

Image courtesy of dualdflipflop.

The Risks Of Filing Bankruptcy For Your Corporation

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risk of business bankruptcy

When your incorporated business fails,  you personally may still be  at risk.

I know you incorporated to separate yourself as the owner from the risks of the business.  As a separate legal “person”, the corporation is distinct from the individuals who own the stock in the corporation.

But when the business has to shut down, the actual degree of separation is tested.

You need to know if the business can safely file bankruptcy.

Or, will using bankruptcy to shut down the business drag the owners down as well?

Can this corporation safely file bankruptcy?

Businesses looking to go out of business typically file Chapter 7.  The business closes, a trustee is appointed, and any valuable assets are sold for the benefit of creditors.

The trustee then controls the corporate checkbook and the timeline on which creditors get paid through the courts.

Bankruptcy trustees are further empowered to recover money paid by the debtor corporation where the transfer is a preference or a fraudulent transfer.  That’s the beginning of the complications in a business Chapter 7.

Before choose bankruptcy as the method for winding down, consider these five potential complications.

1.   Owe payroll taxes?

Corporate officers may have personal liability to the IRS and any state taxing authority for amounts withheld from the paychecks of employees.  Liability may extend to anyone with signature authority on the corporate bank account

This liability exists whether the corporation files bankruptcy or winds down outside of bankruptcy.

More about “borrowing” from Uncle Sam

Filing corporate bankruptcy may preserve assets from other aggressive creditors from which those taxes can be paid.  That benefits the individual officers, since every dollar the trustee pays on payroll taxes reduces what they’ll have to pay.

But bankruptcy empowers the trustee to hire professionals, investigate the debtor’s books, and pursue recovery of money owed to the corporation, either under state law, or under bankruptcy law.

The expenses of that pursuit are paid ahead of the priority taxes.

Thus a bankruptcy filing could work to shrink the pool of money for payment of payroll taxes, and drag out the time before payment is made.

2.  Made guarantees?

Landlords often require the personal guarantee of the individual shareholders before they commit to a real property lease for the corporation.  Or the lease may have been in the shareholder’s name from the start.

Sign correctly for your corporation so you’re not liable

Any individual guarantor on a lease gets no protection from his obligations to the landlord when the tenant corporation files bankruptcy.

When a corporation files Chapter 7, a trustee is appointed. He calls the shots and he’s got the keys to the leased premises.  All the while, the rent clock is ticking, increasing the guarantor’s exposure.

Trustees are usually quick to either vacate the premises or surrender it back to the landlord, freeing the landlord to look for new tenants.

But  pre bankruptcy lease arrears have no priority for payment in the bankruptcy case.  If there is a dividend payable to the landlord, it may be small and far in the future.  The individual is on the hook in the mean time.

3.  Used corporate credit cards ?

Almost without exception, some living, breathing human being is personally liable for every credit card.  Even if the card has the business name embossed on it, the application for that card undoubtedly contains a promise of the owner to pay the card issuer.

So, any liability of the individuals on the credit card won’t be eliminated by the business’s bankruptcy.

The myth of the corporate credit card

It can get worse:  the corporation may not, in fact, be liable at all on the card.  Not all “business credit cards” are really issued to the business. They’re issued to the people who run the business.

Filing bankruptcy doesn’t make the situation worse:  if the corporation is liable and if there are assets to pay creditor claims, the credit card folks get something toward the balance.  Only it’s a long time down the road.

Just don’t expect the corporation’s bankruptcy to absolve you for business credit cards.

4.  Benefited from paying the bills?

File bankruptcy for the business, and you may get yourself sued by the trustee for an avoidable preference.

When you and the business are jointly liable for a debt, every payment the business makes on that debt reduces your personal exposure to the creditor.  And that, in the eyes of the law, is a preference.

Payments the business made on the joint debt benefit you.  If other bills weren’t getting paid, we have an unfair discrimination between creditors of the business.  The trustee is authorized to sue you to make it more fair to other creditors.

The problem of preferences is the only item on this list of complications that is unique to bankruptcy.  Depending on the facts of the business’s operation, filing a Chapter 7 may just invite a lawsuit against you as the shareholder.

5.  Enjoyed  business help with personal expenses?

The more corporate money that flowed to insiders, the greater the threat that a bankruptcy trustee will challenge the payments,.

“Challenge” here is shorthand for “sue you”, or at least look hard at expenditures that made life easier for shareholders at a time when other creditors weren’t getting paid.

Often, the facts are just the opposite:  the shareholders were putting more money into the corporation, or going without to keep the business afloat.

But the idea of a fraudulent transfer, a payment for which the payor did not get a fair return for its money, has a long lookback period.  A bankruptcy trustee could be looking back years to see if the shareholders got more than was fair under fraudulent transfer law.

And if the books and records are sketchy, the shareholders may end up spending lots of time producing documents or explaining what happened.

Even if the end result is OK, the experience can be unnerving.

The bankruptcy takeaway

How to close-out a failed corporate business can be complex.  While I’ve listed the ways a corporate bankruptcy might end up biting the shareholders, the benefits can be equally significant.

File bankruptcy and much of the wind down work passes to the trustee.  The business creditors understand there is nothing available to pay their claims against the corporation.  Assets are distributed in an orderly and predictable manner.

Before you file bankruptcy for a corporation, make sure you’ve asked yourself the five questions I’ve laid out.  Take your answers to experienced bankruptcy counsel for a review.

More

Winding up a failed business

 

Personal Assets Can Be At Risk For Your Business Debts

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Business debt can bleed over into an entrepreneur’s personal assets.  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 operated corporation confines the business debts to the corporate entity.

How to properly sign for your corporation

No,  it’s because he signed the business lease in his individual name.  And because he was a corporate officer who didn’t pay all the payroll taxes for the corporation’s employees.

As a person liable for a debt, his assets (and the whole of the community property in California) are exposed to creditors.

While exemptions protect some assets, up to a specified dollar value,  the non exempt equity in the family home is at risk when debts incurred for business go unpaid.

Understand the California homestead

When business vs. personal distinction matters

The only time that it matters whether a debt is personal rather than business is when figuring the infamous means test.  The means test applies only to those whose debts are “primarily consumer”.

So, debts incurred in business, taxes and debts imposed by law are not “consumer” debts.

If those kinds of debts exceed the total of consumer debts, the means test doesn’t apply.  There is no need to “qualify” for bankruptcy relief by reason of income.

Sole proprietors are fully at risk

As a matter of debtor-creditor law, if your business is a proprietorship, there is no legal distinction between you and your business.  The debts you incur to run the business have the same legal rights to payment from your assets, personal and business,  as the debts incurred for personal living.

When the business is one with the business owner, failure to pay any debt imperils both business and business owner.

Isolating business debt

Corporations and LLC’s are legal “persons” invented to create a distinction between the business and the business owner.  The corporation can incur debt in its name alone, and only it is liable.

The practical catch is that vendors and landlords may not want to extend credit where the only “person” liable is a thinly capitalized corporation. They may insist on a guarantor.  Execute that guarantee of the corporation’s debt, and the individual has staked his personal assets to pay the debt.

The other way owners of corporate businesses become liable for the business debts is inattention.  They never change the vendor accounts to the corporate name when they incorporate.

They are sloppy about how they sign business agreements.

The myth of the corporate credit card

They take a business credit card and don’t realize that they are personally liable.

Who needs bankruptcy

In the case of the entrepreneur I met with, it turns out that the corporation is liable for very little and it can survive as an entity if there is a business future.

The shareholder, however, is a likely candidate for a Chapter 13, to keep the house and pay the debts over time.

More

Is it safe to file a corporate bankruptcy?

Asset protection for everyday folks

How exemptions work

Is There Life After Bankruptcy?

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multiple questions-grisel d'an flicker_opt

Is bankruptcy worth it?

If you see filing bankruptcy to get a fresh start as painful or less than honorable, you might wonder what life is like, on the other side of bankruptcy.

What’s the return on taking the big step?

I got a report from the other side this week from a Chapter 7 client from 3 years ago.  It knocked me off my chair.

When she filed bankruptcy

Single, well past middle age, a renter, and dead broke when she’d filed, she’d retired, moved, and bought a house!

Her email was entitled:  “A Happy Ending”.

I had been confident that bankruptcy was right for her, but she had found the decision fraught and painful. So it was nice to hear it from the woman who was living the life that it worked out.

I just didn’t image how well it had worked out.

Home ownership?  that soon, on her own, starting with nothing?

I didn’t see that coming.

Bankruptcy makes it possible

The downside of bankruptcy always seems to be at the forefront of the thinking of those struggling with the decision.

Debtors are bombarded with fear inducing visions of life after bankruptcy: no assets, no credit, no self respect.

Debtors image that lenders may ask about bankruptcy filings;  others might find out.  What if something catastrophic happens?

It’s easy to overlook the upside:

  • no holdovers from your current financial life;
  • no stress about promises to pay that you can’t keep;
  • no financial barriers to life improving.

Our laws make a fresh start possible.  Our economy wants us back as consumers.

The barriers to a fresh start are internal.

Usually, all we have to fear are the voices in our head.

This week’s voice from the past said there is a happy ending.

More about deciding to file bankruptcy

What the Motley Fool got wrong about filing bankruptcy

   Filing bankruptcy is all about a better future

   Tax trap in out of court debt settlement

   It’s not about the credit score

Image courtesy of Grisel D’An and Flickr.

Who Gets Grannie’s Cash – Grannie Or The Bankruptcy Trustee?

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joint accounts bankruptcy

When there’s a joint bank account and a bankruptcy filing, good intentions can quickly go sour.

The bankruptcy trustee sees a pile of money in the bank to which the debtor has access, even though the account also bears the name of someone not in bankruptcy.

If the debtor can get the money, the trustee contends, so can a bankruptcy trustee for the benefit of creditors.

Well and good, if the money belongs to the debtor. But what if it’s really someone else’s money?

Do it yourself elder care

Who doesn’t have a joint bank account with someone they care about?

Most often, it’s the adult child’s name on an elder’s bank account.  It’s simple, convenient, and reassuring that if the elder loses capacity, a trusted party has access to pay the elder’s bills.

But if the trusted party loses a lawsuit, or files bankruptcy, all bets are off.  The elder’s money in a joint account  looks like money that belongs to the child.

And the elder’s funds are at risk of being seized to pay someone else’s debts.

Who gets the cash?

The answer lies in state law, since state law determines what the debtor owns, while bankruptcy law determines what happens to that property.

In California, the answer lies in Probate Code 5100 and the statutes following.

“[a]n account belongs, during the lifetime of all parties, to the parties in proportion to the net
contributions by each to the sums on deposit, unless there is clear and convincing evidence of a different intent.” (Cal Probate Code, § 5301, subd. (a))1
“In the absence of proof otherwise” the net contribution of each of the parties is deemed to be an equal
amount. § 5134, subd. (b)(2).
That’s a vast improvement over the prior law that presumed that the people named on the account owned the money equally.
California’s statute is based on the Uniform Probate Code, which drafts laws for adoption by the states to make law more uniform.
So, the result of the “joint account in bankruptcy” issue may be different in other states.

Avoid a fight with the trustee

More important than who wins a legal battle is the chance to skip the fight altogether.

Debtors need to disclose joint accounts to their attorneys.  Don’t fall into the “it’s not my money” trap and keep quiet about it.  As I said, that’s a trap.

Why you don’t want your attorney to fight for you

Attorneys need to quiz their clients about such arrangements and get all the bank account statements.  See what the situation will look like to the trustee.

Know what state law says on the subject.

Consider, if the money in fact is traceable to someone other than the debtor, having that person withdraw it from the joint account before filing.

Make it your goal not to have someone else’s money in an bank account to which the bankruptcy debtor has access.

All involved might consider use of a revocable trust as a vehicle for the elder to empower another to manage their money in the face of incapacity.

This post draws on the always-comprehensive observations of Oakland bankruptcy attorney Larry Szabo.  Thanks, Larry, for your boundless willingness to share.

Image courtesy of Flickr & Duncan Hull

Who To Pay When There’s Not Enough Money To Go Around

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collection calls

If you can’t pay your bills, the squeaky wheel should NOT get the oil...

At least, not until you’ve assessed all the other demands for oil.

That’s a quaint way of saying that your decisions about which of your creditors to pay when you can’t pay everyone should not be based on who is on the phone.

The creditors who call you are the ones with few other tools in their toolbox to collect the money you owe.

They hope to get you to write them a check for money they can’t easily get any other way.

Just because they squeak, doesn’t mean they should  get paid first.

Important creditors don’t need to call

The debt collector on the phone certainly feels like he has invaded your sanctuary.  Life is challenging enough without your money problems interrupting home life.

You are tempted to do anything to get them off the phone.  Or keep them off the phone to friends and family.

But the creditors that really matter don’t bother calling.

The taxing authorities just levy your accounts.

The mortgage creditor schedules a foreclosure.

The car lender repossesses the car.

The ex spouse gets you cited for contempt for not paying support.

These creditors have real weapons, and those weapons aren’t the telephone.

Get them to leave you alone

You have a federal right to have debt collectors stop calling you.

State law may give you other rights not to be contacted.

Write a do-not-contact letter, keep a copy, and send it return receipt requested.

The squeaking should stop.  Then start prioritizing.

Who to pay first

It’s your checkbook.  You take control.

Take care of current living expenses first.  Short the landlord and you’ll be homeless.  Miss the car payments and you can’t get to work.

bordeaux-869020_640_optI’ve seen too many people tinker with their tax withholding to create cash flow to pay credit card bills.  They have effectively made the toothless credit card creditor happy at the expense of taunting the big dog, the IRS.

Rest assured, the IRS has more collection rights than a credit card company.

Make a plan and stick to it.

Hands off the retirement money

It’s tempting, if you’ve been wise enough to set money aside for retirement, to dip into that fund to get out of today’s money jam.

Don’t do it.

Retirement funds are precious and almost everyone I talk to has saved far too little.  The older you are, the less time you have to restore what you’ve already saved, when you should be adding to that store.

Your creditors can’t take your retirement savings;  don’t you do it for them.

If the money doesn’t go around

Get help.  Get input from a credit counselor or a bankruptcy attorney.

Find out what your options are.  Get objective advice on a long range plan.

Don’t let the threats on the phone tell you how to manage your money.

More

Understand the weapons of a debt collector 

Assess the threats of collectors: most aren’t real

Images courtesy of   Erich Ferdinand , Flickr and Tindaisies. and Pixabay.

Retirement Nest Egg: Ostrich Egg Or Quail Egg?

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retirement nest egg

Will my retirement nest egg be enough to live comfortably when I’m done working?

Living will be slow and my needs will be simple.

I look at the growth in my retirement savings, the cost of “things”,  and my life expectancy, and wonder if my savings are sufficient to buy what I’ll need.

But, turns out, the analysis is far more complicated.

What I didn’t realize until very recently is that steady inflation is a GOAL of federal monetary policy.  Each year, the Fed wants to see 2% inflation.

Policy makers think that 2% inflation represents a good balance between price stability and employment.

If the Fed gets it right and inflation is a steady 2%, the hurdle for my retirement savings just got higher.

In the course of just ten years of my retirement, what cost $100 today will cost $122 at the end of the decade. And $164 in 25 years.

This assumes that inflation rates do just what economists want them to do.

How often does that happen, I ask you? [Read more…]

Which Bankruptcy Chapter Is Right For Me?

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choose bankruptcy chapter

Seven or Thirteen?

13 or 7?

When you have a choice, how do you decide which chapter of bankruptcy works best?

Usually, the choice is driven by the scope of the discharge and the kind of debts you have.

More kinds of  debts are dischargeable in Chapter 13 and the automatic stay protects you for the 60 month duration of the case.

So why did the client this week choose to walk out of Chapter 7 with fewer debts discharged than if he’d chosen 13?

It’s all about his  future.  And who will get to share in his growing earning capacity.

Chapter 7 over Chapter 13

On the surface, this client seemed a great candidate for Chapter 13, which is my favorite  bankruptcy chapter.

Some of his debts were only dischargeable in Chapter 13;  in Chapter 7, he’d emerge still owing some debts from a divorce.

So why choose the smaller discharge?

Because his earnings were likely to double or triple over the life of a Chapter 13 case.

If that happened, we anticipated that a Chapter 13 trustee would move to modify his payment plan to pay more to general unsecured creditors.

Credit card debt, which would get nothing in a Chapter 7, might well get a substantial repayment from his increased earnings.

He’d pay fewer dollars paying  the non dischargeable debt that survives a Chapter 7  directly than he would paying in a larger slice of his paycheck  to all of his creditors in a Chapter 13 plan.

Chapter 13 after confirmation

Judges approve Chapter 13 plans based on the situation when the bankruptcy case is filed.  The means test looks at recent income.  The liquidation test looks at non exempt assets at filing.

For this client, each of those numbers was modest and a repayment plan would be relatively cheap.

But Chapter 13 involves committing your future income to the supervision of the Chapter 13 trustee.

Now, that supervision is pretty minimal:  it usually means the trustee monitors your tax returns to see in your income has increased.

If there’s a significant increase, the trustee can file a motion with the court proposing increased monthly payments going forward.

The debtor gets to respond with updated expense schedules, and if the parties can’t reach a deal, a judge decides whether payments change.

In the Bay Area, this happens very infrequently.  I’ve seen it less than a half dozen times in 20+ years of doing lots of 13’s.

But it can happen, and for this client, it seemed quite likely that a new job in his usual profession would dramatically increase his income.

Chapter 7 looks at today

If Chapter 13 is a years long process, Chapter 7 is a single event.

The rights of the debtor and the creditors are determined by the situation on the day the case is filed.

If the means test says that Chapter 7 is an option, then the creditors get only what the debtor owns at the filing of the case.

And what the creditors share in is only what’s left after the debtor chooses his exempt property.  Most Chapter 7 cases make no distribution to creditors.

Future income belongs to the debtor.  The Chapter 7 trustee can’t come back a year later and ask for a slice of a larger paycheck.

So, much to my surprise, when we looked at this client’s current situation and his prospects, the more limited discharge was a better deal than Chapter 13.

He’ll get to enjoy a larger share of his future earnings and a fresh start.

More

Cheat sheet for passing the means test

Figuring what you pay in Chapter 13

How to make your divorce bankruptcy-proof

When your ex files bankruptcy

Dividing debts in divorce

 

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Suite 403
Redwood City, CA 94063
Phone: (650) 694-4700

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