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Will recent credit card use sink my bankruptcy

By Cathy Moran

credit-cards-sink-case

If I’ve used credit cards before filing bankruptcy, do I have to wait? Too many people considering filing think there is some sort of waiting period between financial activity and filing bankruptcy. So, let’s look at the issues in play surrounding recent credit card charges and seeking bankruptcy relief. There’s no 90 day rule Everyone […]

Filed Under: Featured, How bankruptcy works Tagged With: 2024, 90 day rule, bank statements in bankruptcy, trustee examination

What The Fool Got Wrong About Filing Bankruptcy

By Cathy Moran

should I file bankruptcy

The famous poem begins, “how do I love thee? let me count the ways”. But what if it’s not love that we are counting, but loathing? Let me count the ways I loathe the Motley Fool’s article asking should I file bankruptcy? The Fool’s underlying assumption is that people in debt flock to bankruptcy as […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: 2018

The Tortoise Is The Mascot Of Retirement Savings

By Cathy Moran

Every campaign needs a logo. Make the logo of your retirement planning a turtle, rampant. Rampant, you say?  Turtle? In the Middle Ages, knights put their ID’s on their shields in  elaborate heraldry that told bystanders who he was, what his birth order was, and which side of the blanket he was born on. Heraldry featured animals, […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: asset protection, exemptions, retirement

Time Runs Out For Claiming A Tax Refund

By Cathy Moran

last minute bankruptcy

Did you know there’s a deadline for claiming a tax refund. If you are entitled to 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 […]

Filed Under: Featured, Taxes Tagged With: 2022, tax refund, unfiled tax returns

Everyone gets the $1M + bankruptcy exemption

By Cathy Moran

IRA safe in bankruptcy

Bankruptcy exemptions vary from state to state, but everyone gets an exemption of ~$1.75 M for money in an IRA. It’s part of the Bankruptcy Code (section 522(n)) that applies to all filers, wherever they live. The exemption covers both classic, before-tax IRA’s and Roth IRA’s that are funded with after-tax dollars. Roll-overs into an […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: 2024, exemptions, IRA, retirement

10 Things Tax Professionals Need To Know About Bankruptcy

By Cathy Moran

As tax season approaches, tax pros need a basic understanding of bankruptcy to serve clients well. 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. 1. Debts […]

Filed Under: Featured, Taxes Tagged With: accountants, tax preparers

Discharge Taxes in Bankruptcy: Move Beyond the Myth

By Cathy Moran

bankruptcy taxes

Myths about discharging taxes in bankruptcy are as common as myths about fire-breathing dragons.  Central to the bankruptcy tax myth is the claim that taxes can’t be discharged in bankruptcy. Not so.  Bankruptcy can wipe out many kinds of taxes.  And that discharge can restore order to a family’s economy. Which ones are dischargeable?  Let’s see. […]

Filed Under: Featured, Taxes Tagged With: discharge taxes

In Debt? Plan For Holidays And A Better New Year

By Cathy Moran

The countdown to the holidays is on. It’s after the holidays that the desire to turn over a new financial leaf usually blossoms, when the bills from Christmas arrive in January. What was a seed of an idea about getting out of debt, sprouts and grows after the holidays. After the New Year, I see […]

Filed Under: Featured

All I Want For Christmas Is A New Year And A Fresh Start

By Cathy Moran

fresh start

The best gift you can give yourself for Christmas may be a fresh financial start by filing bankruptcy. For many, this year has been rough. Jobs lost, small businesses struggling, people isolated. Even if you headed into the pandemic in reasonable financial shape, little good has come of the years after/ So, what would it […]

Filed Under: Featured

Can You Rescue Your Business With Chapter 13

By Cathy Moran

rescue business

Small business owners who are sole proprietors can enlist the power of bankruptcy’s Chapter 13 to rescue their business at a price they can afford. Everyone thinks of Chapter 11 as the “keep the business and ditch the debt” form of bankruptcy. But traditional Chapter 11 is cumbersome and just flat out too expensive for […]

Filed Under: Featured, Small business Tagged With: 2021, business, reorganization

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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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