If your student loans went to pay tuition, room & board, or school supplies, then that debt is probably not dischargeable in bankruptcy. Read more »
Blog
Small Business Chapter 11 Bankruptcies Faster and More Affordable!
Sadly, the economic slowdown caused by Covid-19 is making many small business owners consider bankruptcy. Indeed, the Small Business Association estimates 40% of the US’s 30 million small businesses will fold within a year. Read more »
What Happens to Liens in Bankruptcy?
A lien is a creditor’s legal right to a debtor’s specific property to satisfy a debt. The most common lien is a home mortgage. The homeowner borrows money from a bank to buy a house and signs a deed of trust which allows the bank to foreclose if the homeowner stops paying the mortgage. Read more »
Reaffirming Debt in Bankruptcy
In bankruptcy, all of a debtor’s debts and assets are brought into the case. The debtor does not choose which assets are used to pay debts, or which creditors get stiffed or get paid. Read more »
Bankruptcy Basics: How Does Bankruptcy Work?
The word “bankruptcy” comes from the Italian words for broken bench — banca rotta. In the middle ages, a failing craftsman would bring his work bench to an authority in the town square, who would break it and in so doing, relieve the craftsman of his debts. Bankruptcy is more modern-looking today. Read more »
Do I Qualify for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy? The Means Test Knows
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 »
The IRS and its Notice of Federal Tax Lien
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 »
US Business Starting to See Coronavirus Bankruptcy Surge
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 »
Can You Negotiate Away An IRS Tax Lien?
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 »
What’s the Difference between Dischargeable and Priority Taxes in Bankruptcy?
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 »