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 […]
What’s Up After Tax Extension To File?
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, […]
Unfiled Tax Returns Are A 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 […]
Avoid Paying Taxes On That 1099 Form, Legally
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 […]
Tax Liens Live On After Bankruptcy, Unless….
You mean the tax liens won’t go away when I get a bankruptcy discharge? The client was startled that the lien would live on beyond his bankruptcy. So, if all my debt doesn’t go away, what do I get from the bankruptcy discharge? he asked. I thought the tax debt went away when I filed. […]
Bankruptcy Discharge Slays IRS Form 1099
In a duel between a tax Form 1099 and a bankruptcy discharge, bankruptcy wins every time. The prize? no tax on debt discharged in bankruptcy. So, if you’ve already gotten your discharge, the creditor’s 1099, with your social security number on it, is no threat. But you do need to file another form to secure […]
Keep Your Tax Refund Through Your Bankruptcy
For most of us, finding out that we are getting a sizable tax refund is great news. But if you’ve recently filed a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, hold your celebration. That refund may not be yours. You have a bankruptcy estate When you file bankruptcy, all of your assets become a “bankruptcy estate”. The estate includes […]
Got A 1099? How To Avoid Paying More Tax
One of life’s persistent gotcha’s is the tax consequence of having debt forgiven. Did you compromise a debt, eliminate it upon foreclosure, or have your creditor simply wipe it out without payment. You may have a tax problem. The tax code treats the forgiveness of debt as income, even though you never saw a penny […]
Old Tax Liability Discharged In Bankruptcy, If….
Discharging tax debt in bankruptcy gets lots of families out of a horrible hole. Tax debt can be large and swelled beyond the tax by interest and penalties. Collection on old tax debt often compromises the ability to stay current on more recent years. Bankruptcy can save their bacon because taxes found on returns […]
Five Tax Tips For Two Cents
The tax filing deadline approaches. So why is a bankruptcy lawyer talking about taxes? I’ve found over three decades as a bankruptcy lawyer that there’s a surprising degree of overlap between bankruptcy and tax . All too often, it’s tax troubles that brings a family to me for help. Here’s my two cents on what […]
