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 »
June 15, 2020
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 »
June 9, 2020
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 »
May 27, 2020
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 »
May 6, 2020
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 »
April 16, 2020
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 »
April 14, 2020
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 »
April 3, 2020
Jim loves to fly. It’s how he makes a living. He leases luxury airplanes and ferries rich people wherever they want to go. Jim once flew Lee Iacocca someplace and chatted with him for four hours. His former company also performed engine maintenance and other plane repairs. But the company took a financial nosedive when a large client stiffed him for $200,000.Read more »
March 24, 2020
1. WHICH TYPE OF BANKRUPTCY FITS MY SITUATION – A CHAPTER 7 & 13? There are two kinds of bankruptcies for personal (rather than business) debt. Generally, chapter 7 Read more >>
January 20, 2020
Everything the IRS knows about you exists on a piece of paper called the Account Transcript. I get a client’s transcript when I begin representing them because I need to know what the IRS knows about Read more >>
January 17, 2020
