Blogs
I’ve been practicing bankruptcy law for a while now, and I’ve been surprised at how many very good bankruptcy lawyers either give bad tax advice or incomplete tax advice. I’m also surprised at how many of these good lawyers send clients out the door, because the client has a tax issue that can’t be solved in bankruptcy.
Tax debt is one of the most common and complicated debts that our clients face. It is also one of the least understood. Every bankruptcy lawyer can recite the tax discharge rules off the top of their head; but that isn’t enough. Tax resolution should be part of every bankruptcy lawyer’s tool kit. Understanding tax resolution is a sound business practice and a sound professional practice for bankruptcy attorneys. If you don’t have a proper understanding of tax resolution you are losing out on a major source of business, client service suffers, and you increase your malpractice risk.
Some Tax Resolution Background
Tax resolution is the area of tax practice that involves tax debts. It is discrete from tax preparation and tax planning. Generally, people who owe $10,000 or more to the IRS will require some professional assistance with their tax debts. Most people only qualify for the basic streamlined installment plan or the voluntary repayment plan. However, another large group of people will qualify for the more extensive relief that you can obtain from a partial payment installment agreement, innocent spouse relief, or an offer in compromise.
Tax resolution is a troubled practice area. You probably recall the TV ads that promised people that they could settle their taxes for “pennies on the dollar.” Most of those companies were running boiler room operations that preyed on taxpayers’ fear of the IRS. Those companies are gone now; because the IRS and state regulators shut them down. However, there are still many fly by night operations bombarding people with direct mail or running PPC ads online.
Tax resolution is also a difficult practice area to fit under any one category. Tax preparers such as enrolled agents and CPAs can represent taxpayers in front of the IRS; however, they do not necessarily have the background in litigation and negotiation to be effective advocates. Tax attorneys are often more focused on transactional law, entity formation, and tax planning. However, bankruptcy lawyers are a great fit for tax resolution; because there is extensive overlap between the two practice areas.
Bankruptcy Lawyers Make Great Tax Resolution Lawyers
Many lawyers assume that in order to be an effective tax lawyer you need an LLM in tax; or at the very least, a full course of tax classes in law school. That’s probably true if you want to do sophisticated transactional work or sophisticated tax planning. That couldn’t be further from the truth for tax resolution.
Yes, you need to understand the basics of taxation. However, most tax lawyers took baby tax in law school. Even if you didn’t take baby tax, a good Enrolled Agents prep course will give you the background you need in understanding things like the definition of income, allowable deductions, tax basis, pass through entities, gift tax, and the like.
The fact is that the core of tax resolution is virtually indistinguishable from bankruptcy practice. If you can fill out a bankruptcy petition and confirm a chapter 13 plan, you can setup an installment payment agreement or get an offer in compromise approved. I won’t get into the mechanics, but I was blown away by how similar the IRS’ tax resolution forms are to the bankruptcy petition. Also, you’re already familiar with the IRS expense guidelines; because, they are the basis for the means test.
But most importantly, tax resolution and bankruptcy are the same intellectual discipline. In both practice areas, you are dealing with clients who have debt problems and are under a tremendous amount of stress. The IRS is probably the most feared creditors out there, except for the maybe the mafia. However, unlike the mafia, the IRS can be very reasonable and very fair if you know how to talk to them; and the truth is, an IRS collection agent is no more difficult to deal with than a trustee or secured creditor. It’s the same conversation, just in a different context.
You’re Taking A Risk If You Don’t Understand Tax Resolution
Have you ever told a client to wait out either the tax discharge period before they could file a case or put them into a chapter 13 because they couldn’t wait? How do you handle cases where the client can’t afford a chapter 13 but can’t discharge all of their tax debt in a chapter 7? What do you do with a client who is at risk of losing property in a chapter 7, but needs to file to get the IRS off of their back? Have you ever had a client whose only problem creditor was the IRS?
These are all scenarios that every bankruptcy lawyer has faced. These are also scenarios where you run the risk of failing to get your client the best possible deal or even of committing malpractice. This is because tax resolution and bankruptcy are hand in glove with each other.
The new standards for offers in compromise mean that people with non-dischargeable tax debt may get a much better deal if they go through tax resolution, instead of filing a chapter 13. If you can get the client an offer in compromise and then follow it up with a chapter 7, you may have just saved that client thousands of dollars. Additionally, you can use an “effective administration” application for offer in compromise for a client who has non-exempt property that is either vulnerable in a chapter 7 or going to pump up a chapter 13 plan payment. However, you should also know when an offer in compromise application creates the risk of adding to non-dischargeable tax debt.
Also, have your read IRS Circular 230? Because if you haven’t, you may be surprised to find out that you are already a tax lawyer in the eyes of the IRS Office of Professional Responsibility. At a minimum, you need to know how the IRS defines “covered opinion” and “reliance advice” before you answer any question about taxes in bankruptcy, particularly if the client has any unfiled tax returns or unassessed taxes.
You’re Losing Business
How many clients have come to you with unfiled tax returns and you sent to a CPA or tax preparer and then they never came back? How many clients had a tax problem that bankruptcy couldn’t fix? It happens.
I used to get clients all the time who needed tax returns prepared – very simple 1040s – and I’d tell them to get the returns prepared and then come back and we’d file their bankruptcy; and, then they’d just never come back. I used to get clients who had a tax problem but couldn’t file bankruptcy for some reason, and I’d say “I’m sorry, good luck.” I used to get clients who had spent thousands of dollars on useless tax advice, where I could have gotten them the same result or better for a fraction of the cost of what they spent on some boiler room tax resolution service.
Bottom line, a client wants a lawyer who can offer full service debt relief, including tax debts; and they’ll be impressed by a lawyer who not only provides full service debt relief but can take care of their unfiled tax returns at the same time.
Tax used to make me nervous. Now it is a central part of my bankruptcy practice. I feel like I’m a better lawyer because I can offer my clients a more complete set of services with a higher level of professional skill.
Well-known vacuum company Oreck filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after decreasing vacuum sales. The company will continue operations during the filing, while in the process of restructuring in hopes of acquiring a buyer. Oreck is known for producing upright vacuums and cleaning products through online and direct phone sales, as well as through their Oreck [...]
Debt isn’t always bad, but be careful about taking on too much… It gets a bad rap, but debt is not necessarily always a bad thing. In the business world, Fortune 500 companies sell off debt in the form of bonds to raise capital and expand operations. They create jobs in the process. In the [...]The post Do you have too much debt to handle? Know the signs… appeared first on National Bankruptcy Forum.
The last thing consumers in the Seattle and Tacoma, Washington metro areas need are layoffs of any kind. Even if they don’t directly effect you, a friend or a family member, the loss of jobs means less money for Seattle and Tacoma area businesses. This is why the news that Boeing will be terminating 1,500 information-technology positions in the Puget Sound region over the next three years is a bitter pill for Seattle and Tacoma area consumers to swallow.
Apparently the cuts will affect nearly a third of the total 4,700 Boeing IT positions here, well paying jobs all, and continue a streak of cuts that has hit several divisions of the company since March. While Boeing will be offering severance packages to some employees who volunteer for layoff, this news provides little in the way of long term comfort to families who have depended on Boeing for generations.
The original post is titled Boeing Layoffs Harm Seattle and Tacoma Washington Area Consumers , and it came from Oregon Bankruptcy Lawyer | Portland, Salem, and Vancouver, Wa .
In bankruptcy, you’re faced with a laundry list of duties. Ignore them at your peril.
Making the decision to file for bankruptcy isn’t easy.
You’re poring over options, looking to solve your problem in the best way for you.
You’ve probably talked with a bunch of lawyers to find someone who knows the ropes and with whom you feel the most comfortable. Finally, you decide that Chapter 7 is the way to go.
Now dig in – you’ve got things to do.
Before Your Case Is Filed
A bankruptcy filing consists of a full-blown inventory of everything you own, everything you owe, and a fairly comprehensive detail of your finances over the past months and years. We’ve talked about the documents you need to get your bankruptcy filing in order, so consider that as part of your responsibilities.
Beyond that, remember that you need to get your credit counseling certification done. Yes, the process is a gigantic waste of time – but I don’t make the rules, I just play by them.
Your Duties As A Debtor In Chapter 7 Bankruptcy
Now that you’ve done the legwork to get your documents together, you’ve got to file your Chapter 7 case and live up to your duties under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. There is a dizzying list of the things you’ve got to do.
When you file your bankruptcy case, you must file the following documents:
- a list of creditors, schedule of assets and liabilities; schedule of current income and current expenditures, and a statement of financial affairs;
- a certification that you’ve received and read the notices required under the law;
- copies of all payment advices or other evidence of payment received within 60 days before the date of the filing of the petition, by you from any employer;
- a certificate from the approved nonprofit budget and credit counseling agency that provided you with the required pre-bankruptcy credit counseling session, as well as any repayment plan proposed during that session;
- a record of any interest that you have in an education individual retirement account or under a qualified State tuition program;
- a statement of the amount of monthly net income, itemized to show how the amount is calculated; and
- a statement disclosing any reasonably anticipated increase in income or expenditures over the 12-month period following the date of the filing of the petition.
If you have any secured debts, then:
- within thirty days after your bankruptcy case is filed (or on or before the date of the meeting of creditors, whichever is earlier) then you must file a statement of intention with respect to whether you’re going to keep the property that’s secured by the debt or give it up; and
- within 30 days after the first date set for the meeting of creditors, perform your intention with respect to the secured property.
Your Duties With Respect To The Bankruptcy Trustee
As you know, there’s a trustee appointed in every Chapter 7 bankruptcy case. You’ve got duties with respect to your dealings with that person, as well. Some of those duties include:
- cooperate as necessary to enable the trustee to perform the trustee’s duties;
- surrender all property of the estate and any recorded information, including books, documents, records, and papers, relating to property of the estate;
- appear at the meeting of creditors held by the trustee, as well as any follow-up meetings;
- not later than 7 days before the date first set for the first meeting of creditors, provide to the trustee a copy of the Federal income tax return for the most recent tax year ending immediately before the commencement of the case and for which a Federal income tax return was filed;
- document your identity, including a driver’s license, passport, or other document that contains your photo.
If You Don’t Play By The Rules
The rules of filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy are simple: play by them or go home.
A failure to live up your responsibilities and fulfill your duties will lead to dismissal of your bankruptcy case.
Some failures trigger and automatic dismissal.
Others occur only when the trustee or some other party to your bankruptcy makes a motion and a request to the judge.
Avoid the problem of dismissal by doing what you need to do. No excuses.
You need to do your job and the trustee needs to do his job. The trustee wants you to get a discharge. But the trustee wants to liquidate your non-exempt assets so that your creditors get a fair distribution and so the trustee gets paid for his efforts.
Your Duties As A Debtor In A Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Case was originally published on Consumer Help Central. If you're seeing this message on another site, it has been stolen and is being used without permission. That's illegal, a violation of copyright, and just plain awful.
By ANNIE LOWREY The anemic economy has left millions of younger working Americans struggling to get ahead. The added millstone of student loan debt, which recently exceeded $1 trillion in total, is making it even harder for many of them, delaying purchases of things like homes, cars and other big-ticket items and acting as a drag on growth, economists said.
Consider Shane Gill, a 33-year-old high-school teacher in New York City. He does not have a car. He does not own a home. He is not married. And he is no anomaly: like hundreds of thousands of others in his generation, he has put off such major purchases or decisions in part because of his debts.
Mr. Gill owes about $45,000 in federal student loans, plus another $40,000 to his parents. That investment in his future has led to a secure job with decent pay and good benefits. But it has left him with tremendous financial constraints, as he faces chipping away at the debt for years on end.
“There’s this anxiety: what if I decided I wanted to get married or have children?” Mr. Gill said. “I don’t know how I would. And that adds to the sense of precariousness. There’s a persistent, buzzing kind of toothache around it.”
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, in a new study, found that 30-year-olds with student loans were now less likely to have debts like home mortgages than 30-year-olds without student loans — even though most of those with student loans are better educated and can expect to earn more money over their lifetimes. The same pattern holds true for 25-year-olds and car loans.
“It is a new thing, a big social experiment that we’ve accidentally decided to engage in,” said Kevin Carey, the director of the Education Policy Program at the New America Foundation, a research group based in Washington. “Let’s send a whole class of people out into their professional lives with a negative net worth. Not starting at zero, but starting at a minus that is often measured in the tens of thousands of dollars. Those minus signs have psychological impact, I suspect. They might have a dollars-and-cents impact in what you can afford, too.”
The weak economy and tight credit standards remain the main culprits preventing young people just establishing themselves from making major purchases. But millions now face putting a substantial share of their take-home pay toward past debts rather than present needs. Student loan debt leaves them with less money for things like clothes and restaurant meals. And it is even more likely to suppress purchases of more expensive items that need to be bought with credit. A poor job market is compounding the problem: the educational debt burden of many so-called millennials has sharply increased even as they are being forced to get by on significantly less income than the previous generation — a decline of about 15 percent in real terms since 2000, with much of that drop coming from the recession.
According to calculations by the Pew Research Center, the measure of debt to income for households under the age of 35 has ballooned to about 1.5-to-1 in 2010 from about 1-to-1 in 2001. The composition of that debt has shifted, too: more is tied to student debts, and less to homes. “Having a lot of student loan debt makes it harder to qualify for a mortgage and harder to save for a down payment,” said Jed Kolko, the chief economist at Trulia.
With the interest rate on some federal student loans set to double on July 1, House Republicans and Senate Democrats have both put forward proposals to try to hold them down. Representative John Kline, Republican of Minnesota, has proposed tying the rate on several federal student loans to the government’s borrowing costs. Democratic senators, including Dick Durbin of Illinois, have made a similar proposal. Some have suggested going further: Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, has proposed letting students borrow at the same “discount rate” that the Federal Reserve charges to banks, currently 0.75 percent.
Student loan debt is not only constraining young adults, but also, at least in the near term, holding back the recovery itself, some economists say. The shadows might remain even as the economy picks up, by making young workers more cautious when it comes to decisions about their careers and their finances. Millennials might end up buying less expensive homes or more often choosing to rent than previous generations.
“The debt is shifting how much young people can spend, and it can also be a powerful psychological thing as well,” said Selma Hepp, an economist at the California Association of Realtors. On the other side of the equation, many college graduates now in their 20s and early 30s should eventually be able to make up for lost ground. Students who take on debt to pay for higher education commit themselves to paying off huge sums, but they usually lift their lifetime earnings by substantial amounts. And they are in a better position to insulate themselves against economic bad times, given the profound rewards the job market provides to the college-educated.
Indeed, the economy is far more punishing to workers without a college degree. The college-educated earn, on average, 80 percent more than those who only completed high school, a premium that has widened over the last 30 years. Unemployment rates for the less educated are higher, too. For most young workers, gaining a college degree remains well worth it in the long run, even if it delays some purchases in the near term. “For an individual going to college and ending up with a lot of debt — you’re still better off,” said Chris G. Christopher of the forecasting firm IHS Global Insight. There might, however, be a slice of young workers who paid huge sums for degrees that prove less valuable on the job market, saddled by a debt burden that could end up holding them back for decades.
Mr. Gill said his education remained a vital investment, even if the debt overhang has for now put white picket fences or a condo with a gleaming view out of reach. “Sometimes I think: ‘What if I were to buy an apartment?’ ” he said. “It is like asking: ‘What am I going to do when I first land on the moon? What’s the first thought that I will have when I see Earth from outer space?’”
Copyright 2013 The New York Times Company. All rights reserved.
Depending on state law regulations, a motorist may have their driver’s license suspended if they have an outstanding debt related to a civil judgment. For instance, back child support payments or lack of insurance are common reasons why someone may have their license put under suspension. While it is true a suspension is a consequence, [...]
When facing debt problems, dispel uncertainty to get a better solution.
We love certainty in our lives. That’s why we drive the same route to work each morning, set our alarm clocks for the same time, and eat a narrow range of familiar foods.
Certainty is comfortable, after all. It allows us to make decisions and know the outcome. That, in turn, allows us to focus our efforts accordingly.
When we’re uncertain, we get scared. What’s going to happen if I venture into the unknown, take an unfamiliar road or let the alarm clock go tomorrow?
The unknown makes us scared of not being in control.
So we take to the Internet, asking “what if” questions for hours on end. We ask friends, co-workers, and even total strangers for their opinions.
By the end of the question-and-answer session we end up more befuddled than ever before. So here’s how to solve the problem.
Get The Big Picture
Some of my work involves helping people through bankruptcy so they can get out of debt. If a client’s got student loan debt, I use other laws.
More often, I find myself answering questions that involve a client’s credit score or a particularly difficult creditor.
My job, then, involves helping my clients focus on the real problem rather than the symptoms.
If you’ve got $50,000 in overdue credit card debt, you’ve got a particular problem involving money going out and coming in.
But if you’re 6 months behind on your mortgage and under water on your home, your problem is slightly different because it involves one of impending homelessness rather than simply cash flow.
Figure out the problem first. Then you can move onto the next step.
Understand Your “Happy Ending”
Think about what you want to accomplish in solving your problem.
Do you want to be in a position to get rid of your credit card debts in six months, start contributing to your pension plan, and save enough for a downpayment on a new condo within a year? Perhaps a bankruptcy filing is the quick-and-easy way to accomplish that goal.
Are you looking to catch up on your mortgage? You can look to loan modification, refinancing, or even a bankruptcy to help there.
Have one or two credit card debts that you want to knock out so you can get on with your life? There are things you can do in that situation, too.
So long as you know where you want to go, you can move onto the third step.
Get Curious About Solutions
Here in Los Angeles, it seems as if everyone’s pushing their own solutions down your throat. There’s a sign for a mortgage modification place on every block, bankruptcy paralegals hawking their wares, and lawyers for every need.
If you know your problem, however, you need to know which solutions are inappropriate. Mortgage modification is of no use if you’ve got no problem paying the mortgage and have equity, for example. Credit repair doesn’t many sense if you’re behind on your bills.
Here’s where your friends and relatives become less useful.
You want to dissect the pros and cons of each solution to weigh them out. Know the consequences of each decision, being sure to talk with someone who knows what they’re talking about.
For example, if you’ve got a debt problem and want to learn about bankruptcy then you call me.
But if you want to talk about refinancing, I’m not the right person for you.
Jump
You know your problem.
You know what you want to achieve.
You know which solutions are available, and the consequences of each one.
You’ve got the tools you need, and you’ve done your homework.
You can sit around and ponder your belly-button for the next six months as things get worse (they seldom get better by inaction, after all) or you can pick a solution and run with it.
It’s time to trust your instincts.
Friends and family members all want you to choose their favored solution, and they’ve got strong opinions on why you should do as they say. But you’ve done the legwork. You know what you need to do.
Time to move.
The Road Gets Easier
You’ve chosen a path to getting out of debt based on research as well as your own needs. You know what’s going to happen, and how it’s going to play out.
Sure, there may be hard work ahead. If you’re filing for bankruptcy there are court documents and hearings to attend. For student loan issues you’ve got wind through administrative hassles.
That’s the sort of thing my clients turn to me to help out with – making the hard work a bit easier. Hopefully, your lawyer does the same for you.
But one thing’s for sure: if you follow this simple (not easy, but simple) recipe you’ll get over the fear and uncertainty that comes with looking for a solution to your problem.
Image courtesy of Mathieu Struck
How To Get Over Uncertainty And Solve Your Debt Problems was originally published on Consumer Help Central. If you're seeing this message on another site, it has been stolen and is being used without permission. That's illegal, a violation of copyright, and just plain awful.
Chicago area drivers who tried to avoid paying impound fees for their vehicles allegedly participated in a bazaar scheme that included filing false bankruptcy petitions. Local and state investigators found a significant number of “pro-se” bankruptcy filings (individuals who filed without an attorney) after the U.S. Trustee’s Office identified over 1,000 filings were completed. Most [...]
For many Oregon and Washington families Chapter 13 Bankruptcy represents an opportunity to finally resolve past due tax obligations. The opportunity eliminate older tax debt altogether and pay back the remaining balance at zero percent interest over a three to five year period with no penalties and often at the expense of other creditors is a fine thing indeed. But you have to get the returns filed.
Ultimately within a couple months of filing, you may have to show that your federal and state returns have been filed for the last four years before your Chapter 13 Plan is approved. Moreover, the Trustee must receive your most recent filed tax returns at least seven days before your 341 hearing.
Perhaps the most tax related requirement that you must meet during the course of your Chapter 13 case is that you must remain current on your tax filings during the entire life of your Chapter 13 case. Every year you will need to send on copies of your returns to your Bankruptcy attorney so that they can be reviewed, redacted and sent on to the Trustee. Failure to meet this requirement may quickly result in the Trustee filing a motion to dismiss your case.
The original post is titled Tax Requirements and Advantages in Chapter 13 Bankruptcy , and it came from Oregon Bankruptcy Lawyer | Portland, Salem, and Vancouver, Wa .
Updated daily, this blog will keep you informed on the latest bankruptcy news! 
Learn more about how Bankruptcy works and what you need to know.