Almost every asset you own depreciates with time. There are some exceptions, and in a normal economy a home along with investments items could actually appreciate. However, cars, washing machines, refrigerators and so on all lose value the moment they leave the seller, and they continue to lose value, often quite rapidly. This often leaves [...]
When a creditor has a debt discharged through bankruptcy, they will often try to claim a tax break on that discharged debt. In order to do so, they need to lodge a tax document known as a Form 1099. For debt forgiveness, it’s a Form 1099-C. However, technically speaking, the debt has not been forgiven. [...]
It is possible to change the Chapter under which you filed your bankruptcy petition, however, unless there are exceptional circumstances, this can only be done once. If you do need to change Chapters, all you need to do is make a request in writing to the court – and that request need only be one [...]
The majority of bankruptcy petitions presented to courts are those made my debtors seeking relief. A small proportion of bankruptcies are those forced onto debtors by creditors – these are referred to as involuntary. The process is more complicated than a debtor-instigated petition. The creditor petitions the court for a either a Chapter 7 or [...]
If you are filing for bankruptcy the last thing you want is to have your petition labeled abusive and thrown out of court. The term ‘abusive’ refers to ‘an abuse of law’ – in other words, you are trying to scam the system. Unfortunately, there are some legitimate bankruptcy filings that receive the abusive label [...]
The Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act provides a set of guidelines that must be followed in order to seek protection under a Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy petition. This is especially true for Chapter 7 applications. Part of the process involves a means test to determine whether or not you are eligible [...]
There is more to applying for Bankruptcy than just filling in the forms. Individuals must undertake credit counseling from an approved credit counseling agency during the 180 day period prior to filing their petition. The counseling may be in either a group or individual setting and if a debt management plan is developed it must [...]
