Under the new tax law, most damage awards a consumer recovers stand to go, in large part, to the IRS. So even if you are successful in vindicating your legal rights, the expenses of getting the award aren’t deductible from the gross award. The taxing authorities end up getting a large hunk of […]
Rescuing A Troubled Chapter 13: The Unseen Threat
By Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice
We all get sucked in, at some time, to trying to rescue a Chapter 13 bankruptcy case gone bad. Make sure that you don’t let a bad situation get worse. Get your arms around §109(g). When only a do-over will do, don’t wait around. No payments for months The debtor came to me for help […]
Ensure You Understand Insurance In Bankruptcy
By Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice
Sometimes, issues that you’ve just skimmed over burst forth in bunches, demanding attention. Lately, that issue in my bankruptcy cases has been insurance. Because its treatment varies so, we need to be asking more pointed questions of clients about both insurance policies and the debtor as beneficiary. Unmatured life insurance Starting with exemptions, §522(d)(7) […]
Find Solution That Works, Bankruptcy or No
By Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice
Good income, substantial priority tax debt, other debt within the limits: sounds like a Chapter 13 bankruptcy, doesn’t it? Yet the clients were in my office for a second opinion, convinced they couldn’t sustain over five years the payments their attorney provided in their Chapter 13 plan. Their attorney’s approach reminded me of the Greek […]
IRS Trick I’d Never Seen Before
By Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice, Breaking, Tax
The third amended IRS claim in my client’s case added entries for an excise tax for 2015 and 2016. Excise tax? New one on me where the debtor was a general contractor. I called the IRS agent on the POC for some hints as to what the tax was all about . I needed to […]
Up Against The Wall(design)
By Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice, Cases new & significant
Bankruptcy’s avoiding powers often turn otherwise unexceptional transfers on their heads. But who expected that an unsuspecting business would have to disgorge nine years of honestly earned payments because the customer paid with a check on his LLC? Welcome to the 9th Circuit’s decision in Walldesign. Paid with someone else’s money For nearly a decade, […]
Jump Start Your Bankruptcy Research
By Filed Under: Bankruptcy Practice
The next best thing to being a fly on the wall in the judge’s chambers is having a copy of her cheat-sheet. Or maybe it’s better described as the overview and the starting point for the next bankruptcy decision. So, don’t forget about Judge Newsom (Retired) & Judge Novack’s bankruptcy research binder available on line. […]
