• Home
  • Bankruptcy in Brief
  • ABC’s of Bankruptcy
  • Considering Bankruptcy
  • True Stories
  • Chapter 13
  • Blog
  • About
  • TOC

Northern California Bankruptcy Lawyer

On The Bankruptcy Soapbox

The Soap Box
  • How bankruptcy works
  • Mortgage Matters
  • Consumer Rights
  • Newsworthy
  • You & Your Lawyer
  • Small Business
  • Family Law

4 Compelling Reasons To File The Tax Return Even If You Can’t Pay

By Cathy Moran

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 […]

Filed Under: Featured, Taxes Tagged With: 2016

Disarm The Debt Collector: Understanding The Weapons of Collection

By Cathy Moran

debt collector

You can stop a debt collector cold, wherever you live, using federal law. It doesn’t take a lawyer, a court, or an enforcer. That’s because the weapons of a debt collector are fear, shame, and annoyance. The weapon delivery system is communication. Those weapons don’t have to be any more threatening than a plastic toy […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights Tagged With: 2016

Make Sure Your Mortgage Is Current At Bankruptcy’s End

By Cathy Moran

mortgage maze

What do you really owe on your home mortgage when you get to the end of your Chapter 13 case? For years, homeowners couldn’t tell where they were or how to get answers. But with the recent changes to bankruptcy rules, you don’t have to wonder where you stand with your mortgage lender. Are you […]

Filed Under: Real property & mortgages Tagged With: 2016, chapter 13 mortgage

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

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

Who Files Bankruptcy In The Face Of Booming Bay Area Economy?

By Cathy Moran

who files bankruptcy

Silicon Valley is booming; our highways are so full of people getting to work that we can’t get to work. Employment is approaching the level of the dot.com bubble.  Property values soar. So who needs bankruptcy in this pocket of prosperity? All kinds of people, it turns out. Let’s look at the people who sought me […]

Filed Under: Strictly California, True Stories Tagged With: 2016

3 Things That Prevent You From Getting Out Of Debt

By Cathy Moran

getting out of debt

It’s not a bad economy, poor budgeting skills, or credit card interest that keep you from getting out of debt. It’s emotions, not reasons, keep people from filing bankruptcy and starting fresh. Even if Reason says that you’ll never pay your debts off in the usual way. Reason also says that paying old debt steals […]

Filed Under: Consumer Rights Tagged With: 2016

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

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

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • …
  • 7
  • Next Page »
Coronavirus & Your Finances

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 on how I think law should work for the consumer and small businesses when it comes to debt.

Moran Law Group
Bankruptcy specialists for individuals and small businesses in the San Francisco Bay Area

How Bankruptcy Works

Speak Fluent Bankruptcy: Guide To Essential Bankruptcy Terms

Bankruptcy has its own language.  If you are considering filing bankruptcy, it helps to know the language spoken there. Master just a couple of words and phrases, and input from a bankruptcy lawyer starts to make sense. So, in our continuing campaign for better understanding of bankruptcy, here's a dozen … Read more

More Posts from this Category

643 Bair Island Road
Suite 403
Redwood City, CA 94063
Phone: (650) 694-4700
Phone: (650) 368-4700

Categories

All content copyright © Moran Law Group. All rights reserved.