Sometimes you hear that someone makes too much money to file bankruptcy. Anyone can file bankruptcy, but courts will dismiss a bankruptcy case for abuse or bad faith – when you have too many assets to legitimately use bankruptcy to get rid of debt. Read more »
When a taxpayer doesn’t pay income taxes, the IRS automatically gets a lien against the taxpayer’s property. That means that legally, the taxpayer can’t sell anything without using the proceeds to pay the IRS. The IRS almost never enforces this “silent lien,” however. It’s silent because no one else knows about it. Read more »
According to the New York Times, corporate America is starting to see Covid-19 related bankruptcies on the increase. At Faucher Law, P.C., we still haven’t seen this increase. Note that the New York Times doesn’t give statistics, and it’s only talking about major corporate bankruptcies: chapter 11, not chapter 7. Read more »
A tax lien is a relatively passive way for the IRS or California’s Franchise Tax Board to get paid the back taxes you owe. Why passive? Because it can take a long time for the IRS or FTB to get paid. Suppose there’s a lot of equity in your house and owe you the IRS: when the IRS files a notice of tax lien against your house, nothing changes immediately. Read more »
Bankruptcy can wipe out federal and state tax debt (which is called “discharging” the tax debt) if several conditions are met. If a case is filed too early, the debtor may go through bankruptcy and still owe taxes on the other end of the process. It’s usually a pretty easy malpractice case if an attorney misses this. Read more »
Here’s a rundown from the Washington Post. You can pay it, you can submit an electronic return, but you can’t get anyone to answer your calls. Read more »
Clients often arrive in my office, panicking, with big problems such as unpaid student loans, huge tax or business debts, and creditors filing liens. They want their problems to go away immediately – rightly so because the stress is terrible. But, for many clients, the only effective strategy is one that will take time. Often lots of it. Read more »
There are lots of bankruptcy attorneys out there. Many of them are downright cheap, charging less than $1,000. I routinely charge three to four times more. How could hiring an “expensive” attorney ever make sense? Remember that old saying: “you get what you pay for?” It’s true. Read more »
Filing and paying 2019 tax return: You’re probably already aware that the April 15 deadline has been pushed back to July 15. This means both filing and paying your taxes: late-payment and late-filing penalties don’t start until July 16. Read more »
In the past year, there’s been lots of talk– especially by politicians — about millions of personal bankruptcies being triggered by massive medical bills. While this may be true, I’m here to report that I have not had a bankruptcy client whose medical debt topped $100,000. Read more »
