Legendary marathon runner Dick Beardsley and his wife Jill have filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy, listing assets of $72,509 and liabilities of $176,734.
Beardsley and his wife, Jill, filed a petition for Chapter 13 bankruptcy petition on July 20, listing assets of $72,509 and liabilities of $176,734.
They owe the Internal Revenue Service $87,616 in taxes from 2006 to 2009, making the IRS the largest of the more than 50 creditors on their list filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Austin, where they live.
“We did it to consolidate some IRS debt, and that’s it. That’s the end of the story,” Jill Beardsley said by phone this week.
The IRS seized cash from the couple five days before they filed for bankruptcy, according to their statement of financial affairs filed with the court.
Beardsley is best known for finishing the 1982 Boston Marathon in 2:08:54, just two seconds behind winner Alberto Salazar in a famous race dubbed “The Duel in the Sun.” But his bankruptcy filing is another example of what can happen when debtors refuses to move quickly to protect their finance and delay a necessary bankruptcy filing. The IRS seized cash from this star athlete’s home only five days before he filed bankruptcy. It is almost certain beyond a reasonable doubt that Beardsley knew he had tax debts before his cash was seized. So why is it that he delayed filing bankruptcy? Beardsley like many other debtors probably believed that somehow his debt troubles would work themselves out or that maybe he would eventually catch up; but the truth is that it rarely happens that way. What does happen is that creditors, especially the IRS, become aggressive and seize assets that could have been protected if bankruptcy had been filed in a timely manner. Remember, bankruptcy can even stop the most powerful creditors such as the IRS from seizing your assets and give you a chance to put your financial house in order.