What if I was never received the Notice?

They are not obligated to ensure that you received the Notice. It is possible that the Notice was mailed to your previous mailing address.

Are they allowed to notify me at my job?

Yes, they’re permitted to send the notice to your home or work place.

What is the IRS required to send me before garnishing my wages?

The IRS first has to send you a Notice and Demand for Payment. If you refuse or neglect the notice, they’ll then issue a Final Notice.

Can’t my employer stop the wage garnishment?

No, it would be against the law. Your employer was sent an official notice giving them the amount to hold back and cannot refuse the garnishment.

I just got a letter that the IRS is about to start garnishing my wages, do you know if this is legal and what percent of my wages are they allowed to garnish?

Yes, it is legal for the IRS to garnish your wages due to taxes owed. According to federal law, the payments are limited by 25% of your income. However, they’re permitted to continue garnishing your wages until the entire debt is paid in full.

What Can I Do if My Bankruptcy Case is Dismissed?

If your case is dismissed, it’s not the end of your bankruptcy process. You really need to come to our office and explore your legal options. The reason being, after you filed a bankruptcy case regardless of whether it’s discharged or dismissed, it’s still gonna show up on your credit. There are some options regarding refiling your case, if you need some eligibility requirements which allow you another crack at the process to be able to get your relief from your creditors and complete a successful case. Or there’s an option in Chapter 13 to convert over to a Chapter 7. You may have to surrender some collateral like a house or car but at least you’ll be able to get a discharge of all your unsecured creditor. So you can at least get somewhat a fresh start going forward after the dismissal.

My Car is in Danger of Being Repossessed. What Can I Do?

If you've retained our office to file a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy case and you’ve been making your minimum payments in order to take care of our attorney’s fees so that we can file your case but somehow you're fall behind on the payments of your car and that threatening to repossess, you must immediately call our office and schedule an appointment to come in. At Chapter 7 Bankruptcy case will allow you to discharge all unsecured debt but it won’t let you save a car if you fall behind your payments. Instead, you would need to file a Chapter 13 Bankruptcy case so we can pay back that car over 3 or 5 year repayment plan so you’d be able to save the car and not have it repossessed.

Can I Still Use my Credit Cards if I am Considering Filing for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy?

Once you decide that you retained a bankruptcy attorney and you’re going to file a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy case in the near future, you cannot use your credit cards. And the reason is if you’d continue to use your credit cards and you have no intentions of paying them back that is bad faith. Every single credit card company does a check and reviews their files when someone files for bankruptcy. If you have a Visa card and 3 months before filing the bankruptcy case you exhaust the limit and you charged a 7000$ or 8000$ of purchases on there and turn around and file a bankruptcy case, you can guarantee that it’s going to draw some red flags by your Visa company and they’re going to send you a notification that they want you to pay that back or object to your Chapter 7 Bankruptcy discharge. So it’s a good rule of thumb that if you do not intend to repay it, and you know that you’re gonna be filing bankruptcy don’t make the charge.

Can Anyone File a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy?

Not every one is eligible to file a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy. Some of the eligibility requirements to file a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy case is that you must have not filed a Chapter 7 and received a discharge in the prior 8 years before filing of the current case. You cannot also have received a Chapter 13 discharge within 6 years of filing the current case. Those are basic requirements as far as filing. Also, we have to look at your income and your expenses. In 2005 Congress changed the bankruptcy law to make it more standardized and we have to fill out a form, it’s called a B22 form where we list your 6 months of gross income as well as income and expenses associated with your family size, and where you live. And after we do that, if you’re below a certain level, you’re eligible to Chapter 7 Bankruptcy. The theory behind this is, if you can afford to pay something back towards your unsecured debt, then the Courts and the Congress want you to go instead with a Chapter 7 to a Chapter 13 Bankruptcy plan which is a repayment plan.

What if the Bankruptcy Court doesn't Approve a Chapter 13 Plan?

When you file for bankruptcy, there are several tests that you must meet in order to complete a successful Chapter 13. Number one is Feasibility . What that means is when you file the case and we say,”We wanna pay back these creditors and we’re gonna make a payment of 1000$ a month we have to demonstrate to the trustees and the court that you have resources and the funds to make that 1000$ payment. And when we look at your income and your expenses and we show that you can only make a 500$ payment that’s gonna trigger a feasibility objection. So in order to pay the creditors you want to pay and keep the property that you want to keep, you’re gonna need to find another way to make up that income. There’s a couple of ways to do that: Number one is you can get another or second job or another source of income whether it’s from employment or whether some contribution from a family member or a friend who’s willing to make those payments toward you to make up the difference or you’re willing to reduce some expenses to you’ll have necessary surplus of a 1000$ to make your plan payment. Another test that you have to file when you file for bankruptcy is disposable income. What that means is if you have a lot of income, more income that you need to get caught up on the things that you want to pay for. We look at your income and expenses and devote a certain amount of your monthly surplus towards your unsecured creditors and if we’re not devoting enough where the trustee objects then we have to prove that up and pass that test. There’s one other additional test and it’s called the best interest of your creditors. And that means if you file a Chapter 13 bankruptcy case and you have some investment property or you have some stocks or bond that are above the standard amount that we can accept, you could liquidate that property and pay back your creditors therefore you have the opportunity to either convert and file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy case, liquidate that property and pay your creditors or stay in the 13 and pay back the difference that the creditors would have received if you had liquidated it.

Bankruptcy FAQsReed Allmand2018-10-10T17:24:44-05:00

Bankruptcy FAQs

Dallas Fort Worth Bankruptcy Attorneys

Bankruptcy can be an intimidating option for many people. Although filing for bankruptcy is often attached to a negative social stigma, it can be a great option for those in need of financial protection.., Bankruptcy remains a reasonable legal option when debt begins to accumulate at overwhelming rates. Due to the many questions that may arise when contemplating filing bankruptcy, we have answered some of the most common questions to help you understand the benefits of bankruptcy in a time of need.