As long as clients use tax withholding as a form of savings account, bankruptcy lawyers will have to juggle to protect that refund when bankruptcy looms. Limber up, and let’s look at a fact pattern I faced with a December client who needed to file, but faced no immediate crisis. The point for analysis was […]
Tax Traps 1095 Days Out
When it comes time to discharge 2019 taxes in bankruptcy, the IRS has laid a trap. The trap snaps shut three years (or 1095 days) from now. At that point, the familiar three year rule for tax dischargeability won’t be so simple. Between Covid, wildfires, and hurricanes, the IRS has unilaterally extended tax filing deadlines. […]
New California Homestead in Action
The California homestead just changed, for the better, but it raised questions about how the single change affected the rest of the law. The newly enacted version of California Code of Civil Procedure 704.730 replaces the previous homestead system that pegged the amount of the available homestead to family relationships, including marriage, to age, or […]
Reasons Not To Choose Business Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy preference avoiding powers constitute a serious reason not to choose a corporate bankruptcy to close a failing business. Yet, preferences and the trustee’s ability to recover them have to be one of the hardest concepts to convey to business clients. Clients gag at the thought that paying a genuine debt before a bankruptcy filing […]
Tax Audit Aftermath-Did You Tell The State?
One of the bedrock requirements of the discharge of taxes in in bankruptcy is the requirement to have filed a return. No return, no discharge of that year’s taxes. But it gets more nuanced: in California, when the feds audit the debtor and change any of the elemental figures in a filed return return, the taxpayer […]
Assessing the Ailing Business Post Pandemic
Long after the human patients recover from the coronavirus, small businesses will still be ailing. And long nights will be spent deciding whether to try to stay in business. As bankruptcy lawyers, we’re going to see people in pain trying to assess what to do next. Business owners may see the exit heading through the […]
Analyzing The Troubled Chapter 13: 20,000 Questions Under The Surface Of The Case
After the pandemic, when the economy lurches back into motion, bankruptcy lawyers will confront a clutch of troubled Chapter 13 cases. In the face of disruption, distress, and the unknown, we’ll be called on to guide clients forward, in one direction or another. Let’s review the questions we’ll need to answer in order to provide […]
