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Don’t File Bankruptcy In December

By Cathy Moran

wait to file bankruptcy

Bankruptcy can provide tax relief,  if your timing is right. Tax troubles are at the heart of so many bankruptcy filings.  It makes sense:  bankruptcy is a powerful and predictable tool to get out of tax debt. But filing bankruptcy before the end of the year may fix only a part of your tax problems.  […]

Filed Under: Featured, Taxes Tagged With: 2016, discharge taxes

Get real information about what’s happening with your mortgage loan payments

By Cathy Moran

What have they been doing with my mortgage payments? The client has been making a mortgage payment according to the HAMP formula for almost 18 months of her Chapter 13. Yet without a 1098 form, her very capable tax preparer told her she couldn’t deduct mortgage interest on her tax return. Never fear. We have a new […]

Filed Under: Real property & mortgages, Taxes Tagged With: loan payments, QWR, request for information

Bail Yourself Out Of Payroll Tax Trouble

By Cathy Moran

Business owners with unpaid payroll taxes are in deep trouble. Even if the employer is a corporation, the corporation’s managers are personally liable for the trust fund portion of unpaid payroll taxes. There’s no corporate shield when it comes to payroll taxes. You are in the IRS’s cross hairs, personally, if the business hands out “net” checks […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights, Small business, Taxes Tagged With: 2016

Take Credit For The Tax Deductions That Hide In Chapter 13

By Cathy Moran

tax deductions bankruptcy

It’s tax time: don’t overlook tax deductions in Chapter 13 bankruptcy case. Tax deductions lurk in the most unlikely places. If your Chapter 13 plan is catching up home loan arrears, there’s a deduction hiding in the trustee’s disbursement records. Most likely, the lender’s filed proof of claim in the bankruptcy case is full of […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights, Taxes

The Unexpected Loss When Tax Returns Filed Late

By Cathy Moran

late tax returns

File your tax returns really late and you may lose out on credit for toward your Social Security. Betcha didn’t know there was a connection between income taxes and your Social Security benefits.  This was a new one for me. I’ve written often about the negative consequences of putting off filing tax returns. But Harvard Law professor […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights, Taxes Tagged With: 2018

What Can Bankruptcy Do About Back Taxes

By Cathy Moran

wipe out taxes

Bankruptcy wipes out taxes and leaves you with a clean slate. But somehow, the second biggest myth about bankruptcy is that taxes can’t be discharged. Wrong, wrong, wrong. The limits on discharging taxes in bankruptcy are few: you can’t discharge taxes first due in the last 3 years; taxes for years you haven’t filed a […]

Filed Under: Featured, Taxes Tagged With: 2022

Pay Or Go To Jail Tops IRS List Of Tax Scams

By Cathy Moran

The phone caller recites his IRS badge number. Then he demands immediate payment of “overdue taxes” by wire transfer or debit card. Fail to pay, he warns, and you will be arrested. Or lose your license. Or be deported. Absolutely horrifying. And absolutely untrue. Yet this scenario is repeated often enough that it made the top […]

Filed Under: Featured, Taxes

Deal With Your Taxes After Bankruptcy

By Cathy Moran

taxes after bankruptcy

When you’ve still got taxes after bankruptcy, things can get complicated. That’s because some taxes got discharged in bankruptcy, while others may live on. The taxes that live on get an extension on their life span. And liens after Chapter 7 just keep on chugging. So let’s make sense of taxes after bankruptcy. Which taxes […]

Filed Under: Taxes Tagged With: 2022, tax liens, taxes

Time Running Out on 2018 Tax Refunds

By Cathy Moran

last minute bankruptcy

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 […]

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

Tax Tips & Tidbits To Pay Less

By Cathy Moran

tax tool roundup

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 […]

Filed Under: Featured, Taxes Tagged With: 2016

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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

What You Left Out Of Your Bankruptcy Schedules

One of the first questions a bankruptcy trustee will ask you at the hearing in your bankruptcy case is:  did you read the schedules before you signed them? The obvious, and expected, answer is YES. And if your answer is "yes", then the trustee can conclude that you stand behind the information that the … Read more

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