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Scammers Spoof IRS To Get Your Info

By Cathy Moran

computer scam

Tax season saw a 400% rise in fake email to taxpayers pretending to be from the IRS. The scammers want you to click a link, give them information, or otherwise open yourself to identity theft. Identity theft and the diversion of tax refunds is the number one tax scam.  Fake email is third. Protect yourself as […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights, Taxes Tagged With: 2016

Chapter 13 Fixes Tax Trouble

By Cathy Moran

tax troubles

Tax troubles become manageable in Chapter 13 bankruptcy. 13 offers powerful alternatives to fighting with the IRS. Or hiding from the IRS. When you’ve got tax troubles, it’s easy to feel powerless. After all, you’re confronting a federal agency who wrote the  tax rules.  And they have hordes of employees with nothing else to do. […]

Filed Under: Featured, Taxes Tagged With: 2020

Will You Come Visit Me In Jail?

By Cathy Moran

arrest tax evasion

There’s a warrant out for my arrest, according to the message on my home phone. The charge is criminal tax evasion and tax fraud. The cops are coming for me, unless… Unless, the caller suggests, I call this number and send money. Who knew the feds could be bought off? Of course, it’s a scam. […]

Filed Under: Featured, Taxes Tagged With: 2017

The Truth About Tax Liens After Bankruptcy

By Cathy Moran

liens after bankruptcy

We have a lien on your name.  Not your property, your name. That’s what the county tax collector told my client, years after he got his bankruptcy discharge. And that multi-thousand dollar lien claim threatened to sink the refinance of his house. Eventually, we got the county straightened out without going back to bankruptcy court. […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights, Life after bankruptcy, Taxes Tagged With: 2018, tax lien

Reduce Your Tax Hit By Filing Bankruptcy Rather Than Settling Debts

By Cathy Moran

tax bite

Settle your debts outside of bankruptcy and you may be bitten by taxes you didn’t expect years later. Yet, everyone I talk to would rather cut a deal with their creditors than file bankruptcy.  It’s universal. But here’s the killer reason why bankruptcy alone protects homeowners from a unexpected  tax consequence down the road. Debt […]

Filed Under: Considering Bankruptcy, Consumer Rights, Taxes Tagged With: 2018, cancellation of debt tax

Free Tax Preparation Offered In Bay Area

By Cathy Moran

free tax preparation

Households with an annual income of $54,000 or less can have their tax returns prepared for free through the Bay Area United Way’s Earn It, Keep It, Save It program. Earned Income Tax Credit The Earn It, Keep It, Save It campaign is particularly focused on enabling qualifying individuals and families to access this tax […]

Filed Under: Strictly California, Taxes Tagged With: 2018

What’s Up After Tax Extension To File?

By Cathy Moran

The tax extension in the mail and you don’t have to think about income taxes til October 15th approaches.  Right? Not in my book, if you are self employed. The self employed don’t have their estimated income taxes withheld from their paychecks.  There aren’t any paychecks if you are among that resolute band of entrepreneurs, […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights, Small business, Taxes

How to fight back against EDD’s Form 1099G

By Bill Purdy

erroneous tax form1099

By William Purdy Got an EDD tax form 1099G but no benefits? At this moment, POTENTIALLY hundreds of thousands of California taxpayers are enjoying the ghastly experience of receiving a Form 1099G courtesy of the California EDD for unemployment benefits the taxpayer never received. ABC News reported the EDD has admitted to paying as much […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights, Taxes Tagged With: 2021, identity theft

Unfiled Tax Returns Are A Life Sentence

By Cathy Moran

unfiled tax returns yield life sentence

Unfiled tax returns upset all the normal rules about discharging taxes in bankruptcy. This story tells you why. Two clients, each with $200,000 in tax debt,  came to my office this week. One can escape it all now;  the other is facing several years before bankruptcy will do anything for him. What’s the difference? Filed […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights, Taxes

Avoid Paying Taxes On That 1099 Form, Legally

By Cathy Moran

IRS form 1099

It’s tax time and the mails are full of IRS form 1099. If you managed a short sale of your property; suffered a foreclosure; filed bankruptcy; or settled your debt for less than you owed, you probably got a 1099. But that’s not the end of the tax story. Receipt of the form does not […]

Filed Under: Featured, Taxes

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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

The Biggest Lie About Bankruptcy

Read anything about Chapter 7 and you get, "Your possessions are sold in Chapter 7 bankruptcy." That is, flat out, the biggest lie about bankruptcy. It's a liquidation proceeding and your stuff will be sold to pay creditors, the lie goes on. No wonder people are scared off from getting relief from debts they … Read more

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