Help! I Just Filed My Taxes on October 15, Owe a Lot, and Hear that Chapter 13 Can Help a Lot
“Straight” Chapter 7 bankruptcy can give some relief for dealing with your back and current income taxes, but Chapter 13 can help so much more.
Help! I Just Got a “Final Notice of Intent to Levy” from the IRS!
If you owe income taxes, and are at the point that the IRS is about to seize your assets, you need to consider bankruptcy. It can help in surprising ways.
The Simplest Save-Your-Business Chapter 13 Case
Here’s how to focus on running your business, by stopping your creditors from taking the wind out of your sails. In the last few blogs I’ve been talking about some of the extra considerations that come into play when you own a business, are having financial troubles, and wonder if bankruptcy can help. No question—most […]
Chapter 13 Tames Your Income Tax Monster
A “straight” Chapter 7 can write off some income taxes. But if you owe recent taxes, or multiple years of taxes, Chapter 13 is usually a much better way to go. It often provides tremendous advantages over both Chapter 7 and dealing with the IRS on your own. I’ll illustrate this with an example, and […]
Four Hoops to Jump Through to Write Off Income Taxes in Bankruptcy
The conditions you have to meet to write off an income tax debt actually make sense. And understanding those conditions is a lot easier if you understand the sense behind them. In my last blog I introduced the four conditions for discharging taxes in a Chapter 7 “straight bankruptcy,” and said I’d explain them in […]
Writing Off Income Taxes with a “Straight Bankruptcy”
You don’t always need to file a Chapter 13 case—with its 3-to-5-year payment plan–to deal with income tax debts. Thinking that you do is a myth, alongside the broader myth that “you can’t write off taxes in a bankruptcy.” Both have a kernel of truth, which is why they persist. It’s true: some taxes cannot […]
Taxes and Bankruptcy—Debunking a Hardy Myth
No wonder people think “bankruptcy can’t help me with my tax debt.” Even attorneys sometimes perpetuate the myth. A few days ago I saw a video of a bankruptcy attorney being interviewed in what amounted to be an infomercial. He was asked by the interviewer whether there were some debts that can’t be “touched” in […]
Stopping the Foreclosure of Your Home Temporarily and Permanently through Bankruptcy
Both Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 can help you save your home. Which one is better for YOU? You have almost for sure heard that the filing of a bankruptcy stops a foreclosure. You may have also heard that Chapter 13—the repayment version of bankruptcy—can be a good tool for saving your home in the […]
The Amazingly Powerful “Automatic Stay”
Don’t take for granted the extraordinariness of bankruptcy’s automatic stay. That’s the federal law that stops creditors from pursuing you, your money, and your other possessions the moment your bankruptcy case is filed. In my last two blogs, I told you about the relatively rare situations in which the automatic stay does not apply—situations in […]
5 More Kinds of Chapter 13 Medicine for Saving Your Home
Chapter 13 is extraordinary in the number of distinctive ways it can solve debt problems endangering your home. Here are five more ways beyond the five of the last blog.