Above-median income debtors who want to file Chapter 7 bankruptcy must take and pass what is called the Means Test. The Means Test allows an above-median income debtor to subtract IRS allowed expenses and secured debt payments from their income. If after making these subtractions the debtor's income falls below the median income, they debtor [...]
Filing bankruptcy while owning a condominium, townhome or single family home that has homeowners association fees attached to it might not completely get rid of the HOA liability. Facts about how HOA fees may be handled during bankruptcy: Homeowners' associations have a legal right to place a lien against a debtor's property if they fail [...]
We're already six months into 2010 and many of us are starting to conduct our mid-year evaluations. Have you met your New Year's financial resolutions/goals? Are you even trying? Or, are you, like many other debtors, living the type of lifestyle that could put you on the road to bankruptcy? Below are a few signs [...]
While bankruptcy filings are nearing the record 2 million of 2005, many debtors who need to file bankruptcy fail to do so for numerous reasons. The problem is that whether these debtor file bankruptcy or not they will be forced to deal with their debt issues sooner or later. The longer they wait, the more [...]
If you've been browsing the internet searching for information about how to resolve your debt issues, then you have probably run across the term "judgment proof" at least a few times. But what does it mean exactly when someone says a debtor is judgment proof? A debtor who is judgment proof does not have any [...]
A panel of bankruptcy judges and other bankruptcy professionals have drafted a proposed rule that would require distressed-debt investors forming creditor committees during bankruptcy to disclose the details of their holdings. ...the new rule would make investors disclose their "economic interest" in bankruptcy cases, including debt, equity or short positions such as credit-default swaps, which [...]
The 8th Circuit Federal Bankruptcy Appellate Panel upheld a bankruptcy court's decision to discharge $300,000 in student loans. In the bankruptcy case of In re Walker, 2010 WL 1407769 (8th Cir. BAP April 9, 2010), the bankruptcy court found that the debtor's inability to work because of family circumstances justified a discharge of her student [...]
One of the biggest fears that debtors filing bankruptcy have is attending the 341 Hearing or what is better known as the meeting of the creditors. Many debtors imagine that their creditors will crowd into this meeting and grill them with questions about their finances and willingness to repay their debts. But the reality of [...]
IRS Audit While in Bankruptcy Many debtors panic when they think about the possibility of a bankruptcy audit. But really there is no need to panic as long as you have not willfully withheld important information in your bankruptcy case. Statistically, there are significantly less bankruptcy audits that there are IRS audits. In 2009, only [...]
Bankruptcy filings have continued to rise nationwide and it is expected that they may even exceed the numbers of bankruptcies filed right before the 2005 Bankruptcy reform. Below are a few reasons why many analysts believe that the rise of bankruptcy filings won't be stopped anytime soon: The foreclosure crisis is still in full swing. [...]