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While taxes are a big concern for bankruptcy filers nationwide, it is a particularly pressing issue for Oregonians. This is so because in addition to taxes that might be due and owing to the IRS, Oregonians have to worry about taxes owed to the Oregon Department of Revenue. 
While the IRS is always fairly reasonable about collections issues, the Oregon Department of Revenue employs some of the most aggressive collectors in the country. Truth be told, I would rather have any twenty national payday loan collectors after me than one Salem collector for the Oregon Department of Revenue. So Oregonians care about tax liability.
Luckily bankruptcy is a great tool for dealing with taxes. Some state and federal taxes can be eliminated altogether with no duty of repayment. Other state and federal taxes can be repaid slowly at zero percent interest with no penalty. 
You can even make them wait until you have paid off any loans that you have tied to personal property so that you can deal with the debts with interest rates first. Can’t beat that. In terms of eliminating taxes altogether with no duty to repay, the taxes at issue generally must meet two main conditions.  
First, you must have filed the tax returns over two years ago. If you want to resolve this with any certainty, you need to contact the IRS and the Department of Revenue (Most likely Oregon) for any state that you are worried about to determine when they show the taxes as actually being filed. 
Second, the taxes need to have been due more than three years ago. Remember that this three year period runs from whenever these taxes were last due. While taxes are normally due on April 15th, if you asked for an extension, the three years likely did not start running until October 15th of that same year. 
Remember also that there are two conditions that could possibly come into play for some Oregonians.  They don’t come up that often, but we want to be sure. 
First, more than 240 days must have passed between the date that the tax was assessed by the IRS/ODR and the date you file your bankruptcy case. This is rarely an issue because assessment usually occurs within a few weeks after you get your tax returns in. So you automatically meet this 240-day condition when you meet the 2-year and 3-year ones. It only becomes an issue when assessment gets delayed with an offer in compromise, audit, actual litigation in Tax Court or some other similar matter.
Second, if you file a fraudulent tax return or intentionally evade a tax, it cannot be discharged in bankruptcy. This is pretty rare. It happens only if you were materially dishonest on your tax return, by not including some of your income, or by intentionally claiming deductions or credits which you knew you were not entitled to, or by cheating the IRS/state in some other way.
Assuming that these last two conditions don’t apply to you, and you filed your tax return for the tax in question over two years ago for taxes that were due over three years ago, you shouldn’t have any trouble discharging the taxes just like you would a common credit card.
If you want to talk tax discharge, book an appointment to see one of our bankruptcy attorneys in Portland, Salem, Vancouver or Sandy. We would be happy to help and look forward to getting your the relief you need under the bankruptcy code. 
The post Taxes Are A Big Concern For Bankruptcy Filers in Oregon appeared first on Portland Bankruptcy Attorney | Northwest Debt Relief.

Taxes, Refunds & Dismissals During the past several years, there has been a huge increase in Chicago trustees under Chapter 13 demanding taxes and refunds of the debtors. The bankruptcy code requires that a debtor provide to the trustee, annually, a copy of his or her tax return. This statutory requirement was primarily to ensure+ Read More
The post Chicago Chapter 13 Trustee’s Squeezing Debtors Into Dismissal appeared first on David M. Siegel.

Taxes, Refunds & Dismissals During the past several years, there has been a huge increase in Chicago trustees under Chapter 13 demanding taxes and refunds of the debtors. The bankruptcy code requires that a debtor provide to the trustee, annually, a copy of his or her tax return. This statutory requirement was primarily to ensure+ Read More
The post Chicago Chapter 13 Trustee’s Squeezing Debtors Into Dismissal appeared first on David M. Siegel.

Many of the clients who come to see us at one of our Bankruptcy Law Offices in Oregon or Washington bring in a list of concerns. One issue that almost comes up is the fear of what will be lost in bankruptcy. The suspicion is that the greatest risk of loss will come from the extent of the filers personal property and yet that is rarely the case.
The Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Trustees in Portland, Vancouver and Salem are rarely a position to take anything from our clients because we make sure that our clients are properly protected. When our clients do lose something, it’s usually not what they own, but what they did the year before they filed that they didn’t disclose to us until the day of the hearing.
TREATING CREDITORS FAIRLY
The Bankruptcy code requires you to treat all creditors fairly. This means that you are not allowed to pay off preferred creditors (such as family members) prior to filing for bankruptcy so that other creditors don’t receive anything. In certain circumstances, the trustee can avoid preferential payments and recover that money to distribute among all your creditors.
In your bankruptcy petition, you must typically disclose any amounts totaling over $600 repaid to any friend or family member in the last year. If the Trustee is able to establish that you have repaid that amount in the last year, one of two things will happen. Either your or your friend/family member will be cutting a check to the Trustee for the amount repaid.  
If you have repaid over $600 in the year to any friend or family member, please let us know so that we can find a solution. Often there are ways to undo the transaction, but we can’t undo it if we don’t know about it. More important, going forward, do not repay any money to a friend or family member until your case has been filed. 
You will also want to avoid repaying over $600 to any run-of-the-mill creditor in the 90 days prior to filing as the Trustee can reclaim these funds as well. Exceptions to this would be a secured loan like a mortgage or car loan. 
If you transfer property out of your name prior to filing for bankruptcy, you may be committing bankruptcy fraud. Bankruptcy fraud may be actual (transferring property with intent to defraud your creditors) or constructive (transferring property for less than fair market value while you are insolvent). This is not the time to transfer property to anyone. 
 
If you make a fraudulent transfer, the trustee may be able to challenge your discharge or avoid the transfer and get the property back. So the trustee will also be looking for recent transfers of property that may be deemed fraudulent.
So it’s rarely the value of your household stuff, the car or the  jewelry  that matters for purposes of keeping all your stuff in an Oregon or Washington Chapter 7 bankruptcy. It’s what happened in the time leading up to your filing that matters most. We just need to know about it so that we can help.
If you do have a question about money that was repaid, property that was sold or stuff that was either given or sold for less than face value, let us know. If you haven’t seen one of our attorneys yet, book a Skype appointment with me or, better yet, set an appointment at one of our offices in Portland, Salem, Vancouver or Sandy so that we can come up with a strategy for allowing you to keep all your money in bankruptcy. Who needs to repay a debt for seven hundred bucks to a friend and then repay the same seven hundred to a bankruptcy trustee? Not you. 
The post IT’S THE TRANSFERS THAT COST YOU MONEY IN BANKRUPTCY appeared first on Portland Bankruptcy Attorney | Northwest Debt Relief.