Late tax returns can cost you big-time. File seriously late returns and you get no 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 […]
Debt Settlement Is A Dud
Debt settlement is often dangled in front of the financially challenged as an alternative to bankruptcy. Sounds good: making a deal with your creditors has enormous appeal when you can’t pay everything that you owe. And debt settlement companies count on it. The pitch for “settling your debts” touches a nerve. Almost everyone WANTS to […]
What Is Really Scary About Debt Collectors
When I tell a client to stop paying credit cards, they look at me as though I’d suggested they jump into shark infested waters. “But they’ll start calling me”, they wail. “I’ll be sent to collection“. In their mind, “collection” is a real place, with manacles dangling, barred windows, and water dripping down moldy dungeon walls. Turns […]
Asset Protection For Free
Before you sign up with the guy in the ad, explore free asset protection, courtesy of Uncle Sam. Everyone would like to enjoy their money without worry about creditors taking it from you. That’s the point of asset protection. A substantial industry run by expensive professionals will scatter your money between interlocking partnerships and off-shore corporations […]
Can A Trust Protect You In Bankruptcy?
Can a living trust protect your assets in bankruptcy? Or, anywhere else? According to the lawyer advertising and the self-help books, everyone needs a living trust. The asset protection industry loves irrevocable trusts, another much touted trust. An irrevocable trust gets assets out of your name for all time. Unless of course, they are attacked in […]
Debt Collection Breakthrough Protection
The new rule defines attempts to collect a time-barred debt a false or deceptive practice, forbidden to debt collectors. The new prohibition becomes effective November 30, 2021 when amendments to the rules associated with the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act become law. New rule applies to debt collectors Importantly, the FDCPA applies only to […]
Five Ways To Bankruptcy Proof Your Divorce
No matter how prejudicial or unfair, a Chapter 13 discharge will relieve a former spouse of obligations of all obligations to their ex except for support. It’s too late to protect your hard won rights to non support payments once the bankruptcy is filed. Let’s look at how ex spouses are vulnerable to a bankruptcy discharge. Then […]
Are You Better Off With Bankruptcy?
Who cares whether bankruptcy filings are up or down? Bankruptcy professionals, certainly. Economists, probably. But if it’s you and your checkbook, you take little comfort that lots of others are filing. Nor, when everyone else seems to be making it OK while you flounder, are you reassured. Bankruptcy seems to follow economic expansion. Some expansion […]
Means Test Cheat Sheet 2: Taxes In Bankruptcy
If the most useful trick for beating the means test involves projecting health care expenses, the second most useful trick involves taxes. Tax troubles drive the filing of a large percentage of bankruptcy cases these days. It makes sense: bankruptcy is a powerful tax tool and a bankruptcy judge can be a good ally when […]
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 phrases from the language of […]
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