Will filing bankruptcy hurt my credit? Probably. Should that hit to your credit keep from filing bankruptcy? Not by a long shot. Incredibly, I encounter people drowning in debt who think their credit report is more important than their financial health. Their thinking seems to be that credit, once damaged, is never the same. It’s not […]
Does Debt Discharged In Bankruptcy Stay Gone Forever?
Can debt bankruptcy in bankruptcy come back to haunt me? Worried clients ask me this all the time, fearful that the relief they get from their creditors in bankruptcy is only temporary. The short answer is no. The automatic stay that stops collectors when you file bankruptcy is replaced, at the end of the case, […]
Ignoring a Lawsuit Against You Is Seldom A Good Thing
How do you ignore a lawsuit and expect a good outcome? Yet twice in the past few months, individuals have come to me with judgments outstanding. That’s not noteworthy; after all, I’m a bankruptcy lawyer. We deal with unpaid judgments. But both of these men explained the situation this way: the claims of the lawsuit […]
Bankruptcy And Divorce Collide: The Threatened Filing
My soon-to-be ex threatens to file a bankruptcy tomorrow and get me kicked out of the house. The frantic voice on the phone wanted to know whether he could do that in California. Or better, how he could be stopped from upsetting the pending divorce through the bankruptcy courts. Welcome to the volatile collision between bankruptcy and […]
New Bankruptcy Trends From An Old Hand
I’m seeing a real change in the people seeing me about filing bankruptcy. Used to be, the problem was credit card debt, unemployment, or divorce. A surprising trend over the past six months is developing. I acknowledge the sample size is small. Statistically, you can challenge the significance, but here are the trends. My office is […]
4 Compelling Reasons To File The Tax Return Even If You Can’t Pay
Should you file the tax return if you can’t pay the tax? You got to the bottom of your tax return and the amount you owe is bigger than your checkbook balance. Scared of filing the return for fear of immediate collection action? Scared of even calculating how much you owe? think an extension of […]
Debt Limits Increase For Chapter 13 Bankruptcy
New debt limits for Chapter 13 become effective on April Fool’s Day, 2022. The new numbers are effective for cases filed after April 1, 2022 and will control for the next 3 years. And those limits are: Unsecured debt = $ 465,275 Secured debt = $1,395,875 In the Bay Area with its eyepopping mortgage balances, that […]
Time Running Out on 2018 Tax Refunds
Expecting a tax refund for an old tax year but haven’t filed the return yet? Time’s running out. If you are more than three years late in filing your tax return, you forfeit any tax refund that you would otherwise get. The IRS still has $1.5 BILLION in unclaimed refunds for tax year 2018 but […]
Tax Tips & Tidbits To Pay Less
Tax filing deadline approaches, so I thought we’d gather up tax tips and little known tax strategies, especially useful if you’ve filed bankruptcy. The Tax Deduction No One Tells You About If you are paying mortgage interest, state taxes, back support, or business debt through a Chapter 13 plan, those payments made by the trustee […]
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