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Discharge Your Other Debts So You Can Pay Your Taxes
Ask yourself this one crucial question: if you filed a Chapter 7 case and discharged all or most of your non-tax debts, would that leave you with enough monthly cash flow to enable you to reliably make large enough monthly payments to the IRS/state on whatever tax debt(s) the Chapter 7 would not discharge, so that those taxes would be paid off safely and a reasonable time? Filing for Chapter 7 can help you with your Income Tax Debt.
“Safely” refers to the reality that you would be dealing directly with the tax authorities after the Chapter 7 case. And you (and maybe your lawyer) would be doing so without bankruptcy protection once your Chapter 7 was completed.
That’s not a problem if you arrange to pay a monthly tax installment payment that you can confidently afford. The expectation is that you will be able to once you discharge of your other debts through your Chapter 7 case, but you also must be able to maintain those tax payments until the tax is paid off.
A Chapter 7 is a good idea if you don’t need a Chapter 13’s continuous protection from creditors throughout the payment process. That protection is especially valuable if your circumstances change in the future. The Chapter 13 procedures are likely more flexible than that of the IRS or the state.
“Reasonable time” refers to the reality of ongoing interest and penalties assessed by the IRS and state agencies. These will almost always continue to accrue throughout the time you are making installment payments. The taxing authorities are sometimes relatively flexible about stretching out the payments (and sometimes they’re not). But you need to look at how much the ongoing interest and penalties will add to the amount you must pay before you’re done.
How to Know Whether You Will Be Able to Pay Non-Discharged Tax Debt
How can you tell in advance that you will be able to afford to pay taxes that you can’t discharge? How can you tell if you’ll be able to do so safely and within a reasonable time?
First, it means calculating how much a Chapter 7 case would help your monthly cash flow and your longer term financial stability by discharging your other debts.
Second, you need to know what the IRS and/or state tax authority will likely accept as monthly payments, given the amount of your remaining tax debt. From there the estimated additional interest and penalties can be roughly calculated.
Your bankruptcy lawyer will help you with these projections and calculations. Then he or she will counsel you with the decision about whether you are a good candidate for cleaning your slate with Chapter 7 and then paying your remaining tax debt directly.
Discharge Your Other Debts So You Can Settle Your Taxes
A similar analysis comes into play for using Chapter 7 to position yourself to settle your taxes instead of just paying them through monthly installments. The IRS may allow a taxpayer to settle a tax debt through an Offer in Compromise, and most state agencies have similar procedures.
This choice—between filing a Chapter 7 case and then attempting to settle the remaining taxes vs. just filing a Chapter 13 case to handle the taxes—is likely more difficult to make than the installment payment choice above. That’s because tax settlements 1) take much longer to approve, and 2) are less predictable. The tax authorities tend to have relatively clear monthly payment parameters, but tend to use more discretion with settlement.
Some bankruptcy lawyers regularly handle Offers in Compromise and state tax settlements, others do not. If not, your lawyer will be able to refer you to a lawyer or accountant who does.
Regardless, the same basic analysis applies here as with installment payments. Find out how much a Chapter 7 bankruptcy would help clear away your other debt. Determine how that would position you to make a settlement offer for the remaining taxes. Then assuming some sort of settlement would likely be approved, would it be feasible and reasonable compared to what would happen in a Chapter 13 case?
To oversimplify, file a Chapter 7 case instead of a Chapter 13 if the taxes you’re left with can very likely be handled with a safe and reasonable installment payment plan, or with a settlement. Otherwise file a Chapter 13 case for more protection and flexibility.
Schedule a Free Consultation with Your Portland Bankruptcy Attorney
When it comes time to file for bankruptcy, you need a compassionate and skilled attorney who will be able to guide you through the process as cleanly as possible. Northwest Debt Relief Law Firm, we can help you with filing for Chapter 7, Chapter 11, and Chapter 13 bankruptcy in Portland, Oregon. We will be there every step of the way to help navigate you through the often-complex and difficult bankruptcy process.
Give us a call at (503) 912-8809 to schedule a free consultation with one of our bankruptcy attorneys. If you have any other questions about bankruptcy, one of our attorneys will be more than happy to offer advice on your particular situation.
The post Can Filing for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Help with Income Tax Debt? appeared first on Portland Bankruptcy Attorney | Northwest Debt Relief.
An Automatic Stay is when you file a bankruptcy case creating one of the most powerful tools in bankruptcy—the “automatic stay.” This protective order automatically goes into effect the instant Northwest Debt Relief Law Firm files your case at the bankruptcy court and “stays”—which means stops—all collection activity against you and anything you own.
What Creditors Can’t Do
The Bankruptcy Code includes a list of what creditors cannot do because of the “automatic stay.” Focusing on those applicable to the IRS/state, creditors can’t:
start or continue a lawsuit or administrative proceeding to recover your debt
take possession or exercise control over your property
create or enforce a lien against your property
collect any debt that exists as of the time your bankruptcy is filed
How long does the automatic stay protect me from creditors?
The automatic stay is in effect until your bankruptcy closes. It covers more debt collection than the discharge. Student loans, some back taxes, fines and domestic support obligations are not covered by the discharge. The automatic stay covers student loans and back taxes. Child support actions are not covered by the automatic stay. Fines are not covered either. The IRS can continue a tax audit without violating the stay, but cannot try to collect from you.
A creditor can ask the court to “modify the automatic stay”. If they persuade the court they have a good reason to continue debt collection, the stay is modified only for that one creditor. Usually that means a car company or mortgage company can continue foreclosure or repossession if you are not keeping up on the payments. They can modify the stay in as little as a month.
As Applied to the IRS/State
Income taxes are not treated like most debts as to their discharge (legal write-off) in bankruptcy. Taxes are not discharged unless they meet a series of conditions. But the IRS and state tax agencies ARE in most respects treated the same as other creditors when it comes to the “automatic stay.”
The Bankruptcy Code says that the “automatic stay” “operates as a stay, applicable to all entities.” (Section 362(a) of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.) So are the IRS and state tax agencies “entities”? The Code defines an “entity” to include a “governmental unit.” (See Section 101(15).) So the IRS and all tax-collecting “governmental units” are indeed governed by the “automatic stay.”
If the IRS/State Tries to Collect Anyway
Just like any other creditors, the IRS and state tax agencies act illegally if they violate the “automatic stay” by continuing to collect on a debt or taking any other of the forbidden actions.
If you are “injured by any willful violation of [the automatic] stay… [you] shall recover actual damages, including costs and attorneys’ fees, and, in appropriate circumstances, may recover punitive damages” against the IRS/state. (See Section 362(k).) The truth is that the IRS and various state tax agencies have violated the “automatic stay” on occasion. And they’ve had to literally pay the consequences. They now tend to follow the law and respect the “automatic stay” appropriately.
Special Exceptions to the “Automatic Stay” for “Governmental Units”
The IRS and state tax agencies do have some specialized exceptions—things they can continue doing in spite of your bankruptcy filing. (See Section 362(b)(9).) But these are generally sensible exceptions, applying more to the determination of a tax amount than to its collection.
The tax agencies can:
demand that you file your tax returns
make an assessment of the tax and tell you how much you owe
do an audit to figure out the amount you owe
They cannot take any actions to force you pay the tax.
Schedule a Free Consultation with Your Tacoma Bankruptcy Attorney
When it comes time to file for bankruptcy, you need a compassionate and skilled attorney who will be able to guide you through the process as cleanly as possible. Northwest Debt Relief Law Firm, we can help you with filing for Chapter 7, Chapter 11, and Chapter 13 bankruptcy in Washington State. We will be there every step of the way to help navigate you through the often-complex and difficult bankruptcy process.
Give us a call at (253) 780-8008 to schedule a free consultation with one of our bankruptcy attorneys. If you have any other questions about bankruptcy, one of our attorneys will be more than happy to offer advice on your particular situation.
The post What is an Automatic Stay and How It Can Benefit You appeared first on Portland Bankruptcy Attorney | Northwest Debt Relief.
Chapter 13 Bankruptcy tools gives you options to help you manage your home mortgage. Chapter 13 involves a flexible payment plan that’s especially helpful with debts you can’t write off, or “discharge.” It can be much better if you own income taxes, child or spousal support, or student loans, for example. Chapter 13 can also be incredibly helpful with debts you don’t WANT to discharge, like your home mortgage. Chapter 13 protects you for three to five years while to deal with debts you can’t or don’t want to discharge. You then get a discharge of the debts that you didn’t pay, catch up on and/or partially pay. Especially if you have fallen behind on your mortgage and are at risk of losing your home to foreclosure, Chapter 13 is often the better option.
Saving Your Home from Foreclosure
Chapter 13 stops a foreclosure if you have one pending. And it often stops one from starting if you are on the brink of that happening. You then have 3 to 5 years to catch up on your missed mortgage payments. Having such a long time to catch up makes it easier and more likely that you can and do end up catching up and saving your home.
Usually you catch up by chipping away at the arrearage month-by-month, but not necessarily. Chapter 13 can be very flexible. You may be allowed to catch up in other ways. For example, your payment plan may allow you to sell or refinance your home a few years after filing the case. This can give you some valuable flexibility, such as enabling you to put off catch-up payments until then. This can also give you time to build up more equity for the sale/refinancing. It may allow you to stay in your home for a crucial length of time. For example, it can be a great way to be able to stay within a local school district another couple years until a child graduates from high school.
A second or third mortgage “strip” is a potential benefit only available under Chapter 13. If your home is worth no more than your first mortgage, the second mortgage can be removed from your home’s title. If so, you immediately stop paying on that junior mortgage, significantly and permanently reducing the monthly cost of keeping your home Stripping off the junior mortgage also gets you closer to building equity. (To do a third mortgage “strip,” the home can’t be worth more than the amount of the first and second mortgage balances combined.)
If you’ve fallen behind on your property taxes, Chapter 13 also gives you more time to catch up on it. As with your mortgage lender, during your catch-up period, your home is protected from the taxing authority’s foreclosure. You are also protected from your mortgage lender itself foreclosing for the reason that you not having paid those taxes.
Bankruptcy allows you to remove most judgment liens from your home title permanently. You may pay a part of the underlying debt (that resulted in the judgment) through your Chapter 13 plan, but most of the time that individual debt does not increase the amount you are required to pay. And sometimes these debts receive nothing at all. Then at the end of your case whatever amount is still unpaid is all discharged. Judgment lien removal is also available in a Chapter 7 case, but can be especially valuable in Chapter 13 in combination with the other tools.
Chapter 13 also deals relatively well with a lien on your home on debt that bankruptcy does not discharge. So if you have a lien based on child/spousal support arrearage or relatively recent income taxes, you pay off that debt through your Chapter 13 plan, while being protected from collection efforts of these creditors. And then at the end of your case, with the debt paid, the lien is released from your home’s title.
Schedule a Free Consultation with Your Portland Bankruptcy Attorney
When it comes time to file for bankruptcy, you need a compassionate and skilled attorney who will be able to guide you through the process as cleanly as possible. Northwest Debt Relief Law Firm, we can help you with filing for Chapter 7, Chapter 11, and Chapter 13 bankruptcy in Portland, Oregon. We will be there every step of the way to help navigate you through the often-complex and difficult bankruptcy process.
Give us a call at (503) 912-8809 to schedule a free consultation with one of our bankruptcy attorneys. If you have any other questions about bankruptcy, one of our attorneys will be more than happy to offer advice on your particular situation.
The post Chapter 13 Bankruptcy Tools for Your Home Mortgage appeared first on Portland Bankruptcy Attorney | Northwest Debt Relief.
New Yorkers who can afford to avoid their dysfunctional subway system are spoiled for choice these days. In addition to long-established taxis, livery cabs, black cars and limousines, they can summon rides through Uber, Lyft, Via, Juno and other app-based ride-hailing and ride-sharing services. While this new surfeit of options has been a boon to people trying to get around town, it has also helped lay waste to the livelihoods of taxi drivers and turn New York’s already busy streets into glorified parking lots — and leaders like Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Albany and the City Council have yet to come up with an effective strategy to deal with these problems.
Cities have a long history of intervening to impose order on their streets. No large metropolis can accommodate everyone who would like to drive or be privately driven around — street space is a limited resource, especially in the densest neighborhoods and at the busiest times of the day. In the 1930s, during the Great Depression, New York created its taxi medallion system because drivers looking for work flooded the streets, far outstripping demand and driving down wages for drivers.
With the rise of Uber, Lyft and the like, the city is again confronting a tragedy of the commons.Many other thriving cities, including London and Paris, are also struggling to figure out how to respond to these new business models. A big part of the problem is that elected officials have not updated regulations written for a bygone era in which each type of car service tended to stay in its lane, so to speak — in New York, taxis primarily plied the streets of Manhattan and the city’s airports, liveries took care of residents of the other boroughs, and black cars chauffeured the denizens of Wall Street. While the city has issued just 13,587 taxi medallions — a small fraction of the more than 60,000 cars Uber commands — it gave freer rein to the liveries and black cars under the assumption that these specialized services would never become dominant.
Ride-hailing apps have shattered those boundaries by signing up drivers with livery or black-car licenses. These companies cast themselves as filling big gaps in the transportation system, and it’s true that they have been great for people in mass-transit-starved parts of the city. But their growth has also led to many veteran taxi and black-car drivers seeing a devastating decrease in take-home pay.
That’s largely because they are completing fewer trips than before. As a result, the value of the taxi medallions that drivers must either buy from the city or rent from taxi companies has crashed in recent years, going from a high of about $1.3 million in 2014 to less than $200,000 today. Over the past five months, four drivers who were financially strained have killed themselves, and many others have lost their medallions to foreclosure.
At the same time, traffic has slowed to a crawl, to just 8.2 miles per hour south of 60th Street in Manhattan in 2015, down from 9.4 miles per hour in 2010, according to the city’s Department of Transportation.
It makes little sense for the city to regulate the old and new guard of for-hire cars differently when many New Yorkers use them interchangeably — as do some drivers, who have been known to switch between traditional cabs and app-based services. While it would be impractical for the city to get rid of its existing regulations in one fell swoop, it could phase in new regulations. A more thoughtful regime would ensure that all drivers make a living wage by establishing a minimum fare for riders, and a standardized share of that fare for drivers, regardless of what kind of car they drive. Or as Brad Lander, a City Council member from Brooklyn, has proposed, the city could require companies like Uber to pay drivers a minimum wage. Further, the city ought to standardize regulations like those requiring that a certain number of cars be accessible to people with disabilities.
The city and state also need to create a smart congestion pricing plan to reduce traffic while raising money for upgrades to the subway and bus system, which would encourage fewer people to get into cabs and Ubers. The Legislature recently added a surcharge on taxi trips below 96th Street in Manhattan: 75 cents for pooled trips, $2.50 for yellow taxis and $2.75 for black cars and Uber and Lyft rides. This charge is flawed. It does not vary by the time of day, and lawmakers failed to impose fees on private cars and trucks. A smart pricing scheme would discourage use of all vehicles when traffic is at its worst and encourage car travel and deliveries at off-peak times.
Over time, the city should consider whether it owes something to drivers who sunk their savings into taxi medallions. Many drivers went into debt to buy these permits because the city promised them a monopoly on picking up passengers, a promise it has not been able to keep. No doubt any compensation plan would be controversial, and working out the details would be tricky — the city, for example, should not compensate investors, like Michael Cohen, President Trump’s lawyer-cum-fixer, who should have known that they were taking big risks by buying up dozens of medallions. Governments in Quebec and Australia have compensated or are proposing compensating taxi drivers for the lost value of such licenses.
The city needs to make its transportation system fairer to paid drivers, responsive to the needs of commuters and more environmentally sustainable. If the mayor and other elected officials put their minds to that task, they might also help set a model that cities around the world could follow.
© 2018 The New York Times Company
The April 2018 New York City Taxi & Limousine Commission (TLC) sales results have been released to the public. And as is our practice, provided below are James Shenwick’s comments about those sales results.
1. The volume of sales continues to decline. In April, there were only 23 taxi medallion sales (excluding stock transfers).
2. 12 of the 23 sales (over half) were foreclosure sales, which means that the medallion owner defaulted on the bank loan and the banks were foreclosing to obtain possession of the medallion. We disregard these transfers in our analysis of the data, because we believe that they are outliers and not indicative of the true value of the medallion, which is a sale between a buyer and a seller under no pressure to sell (fair market value). Three additional transfers were family transactions for minimal or no consideration, which we have also excluded from our analysis.
3. The eight regular sales ranged from a low of $170,000 (one medallion), to three medallions at $175,000, to two medallions at $180,000, and two medallions at $185,000.
4. The low sales volume seems to indicate that at this stage of the market, not many parties are involved in selling or buying medallions, possibly due to the fear that medallion prices may further decrease.
5. The median of March’s sales was $177,500, a $2,500 (1.4 %) decrease from March’s median sales of $180,000.
Please continue to read our blog to see what happens to medallion pricing in the future. Any individuals or businesses with questions about taxi medallion valuations or workouts should contact Jim Shenwick at (212) 541-6224 or via email at j[email protected].
There are times during a bankruptcy proceeding where a creditor will decide to challenge the automatic stay. The purpose of challenging the automatic stay is to allow the creditor to move forward with any legal action against you for the debt that you owe them. A preliminary hearing on the request to lift the stay is held within 30 days, followed by a final hearing within 30 days after the preliminary hearing.
The post Challenges to the Automatic Stay appeared first on Tucson Bankruptcy Attorney.
After bankruptcy, get a credit card. Get a couple. Getting back to good credit is one of the five ways bankruptcy gives you a new start. The bankruptcy itself helps quite a bit, because the old debts stop chasing you. But to really improve your credit score you have to get and use two or […]
The post After Bankruptcy, get a credit card by Robert Weed appeared first on Robert Weed.
Does Bankruptcy Write Off Criminal Fines or Restitution? Bankruptcy does not write off criminal fines or restitution. The “automatic stay,” which stops almost all other collection actions, does not stop any criminal court proceedings.
There is a big division in the law is between criminal and civil matters. Criminal law is just one relatively small side of the law. The civil side includes everything else. It includes the law of contracts for buying consumer goods and for creating debts, the law of marriage and divorce, rules about labor and employment, the rights and obligations related to vehicle accidents and all other personal injuries and property damage, as just a few examples.
Criminal charges against you sometimes spill over into the civil side. You may find yourself dealing with fallout from your alleged criminal actions that go beyond the criminal court. This is where bankruptcy may be able to give you some serious help.
Specifically, once a criminal case is resolved you could face a lawsuit by the alleged victim in civil court. This can happen even if you succeed in having the criminal charges dropped.
The Example
Let’s say you had a fight with your now-ex-spouse not long before your divorce. Unfortunately, it got physical. A few days later a mysterious fire destroyed your ex-spouse’s vehicle and garage and damaged her house. You know nothing about the fire and believe your ex-spouse is trying to frame you. Criminal charges are brought against you for assault and battery, and arson. You go through an exhausting criminal trial, with the help of a good criminal defense lawyer. You are found not guilty of any of the criminal charges, because you in fact had nothing to do with the fire, and the jury found you to be much more credible than your ex-spouse.
But that’s not good enough for your all-the-more enraged ex-spouse. He or she sues you for civil assault and battery from the fight, for severe emotional distress from the fire, and for $200,000 property damage for the vehicle and to the real estate. You are at risk of owing a tremendous amount of money.
Your lawyer tells you that winning in criminal court does not at all mean you will win in civil court. There is a lower standard of proof on the civil side. Proving your fault by “a preponderance of the evidence” is much easier than “beyond a reasonable doubt.” Basically, whichever side has a more convincing story wins. Your criminal jury found reasonable doubt on all the charges. But your lawyer advises you that there is still a serious chance you could lose in civil court.
Besides that, paying for your criminal defense has more than tapped you out. In fact you’re in serious debt trouble overall, from the combination of the divorce and the criminal battle. So you are thinking about filing bankruptcy because of all the financial pressures. You wonder if it can help with this lawsuit by your ex-spouse as well.
The Major Ways Bankruptcy Can Help
- Automatic stay
If you filed a bankruptcy case, that would at least stop the civil court litigation temporarily. Your ex-spouse would have to get permission from the bankruptcy judge to continue with the civil lawsuit. He or she would likely have to hire a new bankruptcy attorney to do so. This would be an extra expense. It would put a pause in the litigation. His or her bankruptcy lawyer may help your ex-spouse see that lawsuit is a waste of time and money. These might be enough to have him or her decide to stop spending money on this.
- Proof of your actual finances
Part of your ex-spouse’s motivation may be some expectation that you have hidden assets with which to pay damages. Assuming you really don’t, your bankruptcy documents should make that case for you quite persuasively. That paperwork, filed under oath in your bankruptcy case, will paint a thorough and honest picture of your finances. It will convincingly show that you have little worth chasing. This reality should catch the attention of his or her lawyer. The lawyer’s self-interest will make him or her concerned about investing too much in chasing you. Even if your ex-spouse is very angry, he or she may be convinced that continuing to fight is not worthwhile.
- More difficult elements to prove
When you file your bankruptcy case, you immediately make it harder for your ex-spouse to win against you. He or she doesn’t just need to show that under the law you’ve caused damage to her person or property. In other words, your ex-spouse doesn’t just need to win the state court lawsuit. In addition now he or she must also show that this debt you owe fits within some limited categories of debts that are not discharged (written off) in bankruptcy.
Your actions must be determined to have been “willful and malicious” Otherwise the ex-spouse’s claim against you would be discharged (legally written off forever). That generally means that your actions must be found to have been intentional and been done without any just cause or excuse. This makes it harder for your ex-spouse to make you pay anything. His or her lawyer will be obligation to advise him or her about this.
Conclusion
Once your ex-spouse and his or her lawyer are forced to pause in the litigation, see the truth of your finances, and realize that your bankruptcy has created an additional major hurdle to getting anything out of you, they may well decide that the lawsuit against you will not succeed. And even if they keep pressing ahead, your bankruptcy will make it harder to prevail against you.
Schedule a Free Consultation with Your Portland Bankruptcy Attorney
When it comes time to file for bankruptcy, you need a compassionate and skilled attorney who will be able to guide you through the process as cleanly as possible. Northwest Debt Relief Law Firm, we can help you with filing for Chapter 7, Chapter 11, and Chapter 13 bankruptcy in Portland, Oregon. We will be there every step of the way to help navigate you through the often-complex and difficult bankruptcy process.
Give us a call at (503) 912-8809 to schedule a free consultation with one of our bankruptcy attorneys. If you have any other questions about bankruptcy, one of our attorneys will be more than happy to offer advice on your particular situation.
The post Does Bankruptcy Write Off Criminal Fines or Restitution? appeared first on Portland Bankruptcy Attorney | Northwest Debt Relief.
By Barry Ritholtz
On this day May 4, 2011, Uber NYC launched. It filled an enormous, artificial void that was created by the Taxi and Limousine Commission at the behest of the Yellow Cab medallion owners.
In New York, Uber has been thrust back into the news after several Yellow Cab driver suicides (read this or listen to this) and indebtedness and families of survivors are blaming the stress of competing with smartphone ride-hailing services. The New York City Council is looking to limit or perhaps even reverse the expansion of app-based rides.
This is a terrible idea.
This is because it was market forces -- plain, pure and simple -- that created the demand for ride services like Uber, Lyft and others. 1 Indeed, these companies might not have achieved the wild success they found in New York but for the combination of the TLC’s aggressive incompetence and the medallion owners’ unbridled greed. Since the 1970s, these two groups have made taxi service in New York abysmal while enriching themselves. They did this by keeping the number of taxi medallions at an artificially low number and ignoring demand, much to the eternal dismay of anyone trying to hail a cab.
A little history: The TLC was created in 1971 to “wrest control of taxi industry regulation away from the [New York City] Police Department,” according to Biju Mathew, 2 author of "Taxi!: Cabs and Capitalism in New York City." This change took curbside ride-hailing from bad to worse and the TLC began a rich epoch of corruption and failure, marked by indictments and convictions.
I blame the artificially low numbers of medallions for almost all of New York's taxi industry’s woes.
The credit for that -- and for creating a market opportunity for Uber -- belongs to the TLC and the medallion owners. Consider, the number of licensed cabs was about 16,900 in 1937, when the city's population was more than 1 million lower than it is today. Today, there are fewer medallions than 80 years ago. There have been only about 1,800 new medallions issued since 1996.
It is an artificially created monopoly, and monopolies tend to lead to terrible economic behaviors. Just consider one aspect of the appalling level of service on offer. In New York, many taxi drivers change shifts between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m., abandoning the city in the midst of rush hour, returning to the outer boroughs or even New Jersey for driver changes. Let a single drop of rain fall and it is almost impossible -- no, it is impossible -- to find a cab. The cars are often in bad shape, devoid of shock absorbers, and back seats that make me want a shower afterward. Yellow Cabs also have been known to illegally refuse to pick up the hails of African-Americans. Unlike London, where drivers have an almost tour guide-like knowledge of their city, New York cab drivers are often utterly ignorant of the city where they work.
All of these failings would be much less likely to take place in a competitive market. We know this is an artificial monopoly because of the price behavior of medallions after market competition began: prices for medallions peaked shortly after Uber came to town, but before it had much of an impact. Bloomberg Businessweek reported that medallion prices, which peaked at $1.3 million in 2013, were already sliding, falling below $900,000 in 2013. Just two years later 2015, prices had fallen another 40 percent.
And it got worse: By 2016, the lowest reported price was $250,000. Last year, medallions sold for as little as $241,000. They are still falling. Axios noted a recent transaction that went for just 8 percent of the peak value, or about $100,000. Other cities, such as Chicago, have seen similar declines in medallion prices.
This surely has meant some hardship for those who bought near the peak and have watched the value of their investment collapse. Among those hurt is President Donald Trump’s attorney and fixer Michael Cohen, who owes $282,000s in back taxes on his medallions. But let's be real: this is what happens in markets -- there are winners and losers.
Unless government intervenes in the market, there's likely no reason why demand for Uber services will decline. Last year was the first time more people used Uber in New York than city cabs. In July 2017, Uber had 289,000 average daily rides versus 277,000 for medallion taxis.
This story, in a nutshell, is a classic example of regulatory capture. The TLC, by serving the interests of the industry it regulated rather than customers of the taxi industry, allowed an enormous gap between supply and demand to open. It was into this void that ride hailing apps like Uber and Lyft rushed, exploiting powerful market forces. No one should be surprised these services exploded in popularity; it is living testimony to the reality that trying to thwart market forces for decades eventually has huge repercussions. Even the courts understood this, with one Queens (New York) County judge telling medallion owners to “Compete with Uber or die.”
Of course there are other elements to this sad tale -- epic greed and corruption, rent extraction and economic ignorance. But the bottom line is that the parties concerned made a giant mess of this, and now they are left to harvest their rotting crop.
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.
- This is not praise for Uber; it has plenty of its own issues, starting with a corporate culture that was so toxic that Travis Kalanick, founder, chief executive officer and majority shareholder was forced to step down.
- Matthew is a member of the organizing committee of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance.
©2018 Bloomberg L.P. All Rights Reserved
Divorcing Spouses File a Chapter 7? A “joint case” is one filed “by an individual… and such individual’s spouse.” “Spouse” is not defined in the Bankruptcy Code, but presumably refers to someone who is legally married to the “individual.”
So, if you and your spouse are contemplating divorce, you CAN file a Chapter 7 “straight bankruptcy” jointly.
But Should You File Together?
As you think about whether you should file jointly, consider some timing considerations. Think about whether it makes sense to file the divorce case first, before filing the bankruptcy case. Or the other way around. If it makes sense to file divorce first, when that’s done you’ll presumably no longer be married. Since you would no longer be spouses, you would not be able to file bankruptcy jointly.
So what are the considerations about which to file first?
Debts as of the Date of Filing Bankruptcy
One very important consideration is that a bankruptcy case affects only debts that exist when you file that case. (Section 727(b) of the Bankruptcy Code.) Future debts aren’t included. This means that filing a bankruptcy case before going through divorce will not affect the obligations created in that divorce. Many debts arising out of divorce aren’t affected by bankruptcy, but some can be. So sometimes it makes sense to hold off on filing bankruptcy until after the divorce. At that point you could only file without your now-former spouse.
Assets as of the Date of Filing Bankruptcy
Same thing regarding things you own—your assets. Usually the only assets involved in your bankruptcy case are those you own “as of the commencement of the case.” (Section 541(a)(1) and (2).) So assets that you acquire after you file your Chapter 7 case are not part of the case.
Divorce usually involves a division of assets between the spouses. You may lose some assets to your spouse through divorce, you may gain some. This anticipated shifting of assets may affect when you file a Chapter 7 case. If are expecting to gain assets in your divorce that may not be protected (“exempt”) in bankruptcy, that may encourage you to file bankruptcy before the divorce. If divorce is going to take away unprotected assets, it may make sense to file divorce first.
So When SHOULD Spouses Considering Divorce File a Joint Bankruptcy?
Arguably, an about-to-divorce couple should never file a joint bankruptcy. Why not?
First, the two spouses can file individual bankruptcies at any time. They are not obligated to file jointly. It often makes a lot of sense to file separately, and since you’re allow to maybe you should.
Second, if you are seriously thinking about divorce, the odds are high that you and your spouse’s legal interests are diverging. There is a good chance that the legal solution best for you is not the best for your spouse. You can’t be on the same team if your goals are different.
Third, your interests are often in direct conflict. You certainly can’t be on the same team if your goal is to defeat your teammate.
Fourth, being on the same side in a Chapter 7 case assumes a level of honesty, trust, and cooperation that seldom exists between ready-to-divorce couple.
Should You EVER File Chapter 7 Case Together?
You might still file a joint Chapter 7 case if doing so is in each of your self-interest’s. That means it’s in the best interest of each of you to file:
a Chapter 7 case
that Chapter 7 case jointly
at the same point in time
before starting the divorce case
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When it comes time to file for bankruptcy, you need a compassionate and skilled attorney who will be able to guide you through the process as cleanly as possible. Northwest Debt Relief Law Firm, we can help you with filing for Chapter 7, Chapter 11, and Chapter 13 bankruptcy in Portland, Oregon. We will be there every step of the way to help navigate you through the often-complex and difficult bankruptcy process.
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The post Should Divorcing Spouses File a Chapter 7 Together? appeared first on Portland Bankruptcy Attorney | Northwest Debt Relief.
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