When facing a severe financial crisis, many people turn to bankruptcy as a way to wipe out their debts and experience a new financial beginning. This is certainly an option that you should consider, but you should discuss this carefully with your lawyer to determine if this is the best option for you. One important consideration is what actual debts you wish to be wiped out. Declaring bankruptcy on student loans, for example, is not usually allowed.

There are a number of debts which will not be discharged, or eliminated, by bankruptcy. Any child support obligations or Federal taxes are not usually discharged in bankruptcy. Likewise, any criminal fees or judgments resulting from a drunk driving case will still have to be paid even if you successfully file bankruptcy. Student loans are another common form of debt that is not usually done away with.

It’s actually not difficult to understand why student loans typically survive bankruptcy. The laws were written this way in order to encourage banks to make loans to students. If banks believe that their loans could be wiped out easily, they might not make the loans at all.

This is why getting rid of your student loan obligations is tricky in most bankruptcy cases. In order to have a chance of doing away with your student loans when filing for bankruptcy, you have to show the court that you are experiencing an undue hardship. In other words, the question is whether you would be able to maintain a minimum standard of living if you are forced to pay back the student loans.

The bottom line is that you have to be in severe financial circumstances for the judge to consider wiping out your student debt. Unfortunately, this criterion is quite vague and can be interpreted differently by different judges.

Unfortunately, the law does not give a specific standard for this. This means that much of your case will be decided by the particular judge that is presiding over your case. You also need to prove that you have already tried to pay back the loans and that your circumstances will likely stay the same for some time.

If you are unable to get rid of your student loans with bankruptcy, you may want to look into the possibility of an administrative discharge. The chances of qualifying are still steep, but it’s worth looking into.

Administrative discharge will do away with your student loans in certain cases such as severe disability or if you have served in the military or peace corps.

A person’s debt is reorganized for repayment. To be eligible for this type of bankruptcy, you must have a steady source of income from which you can make monthly payments to your creditors for the next 3-5 years. How much you have to pay back and what your monthly payments will be are determined by the bankruptcy court and based on things like how much money you owe, how much money your creditors would have received had you filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy, and how much you can afford to pay per month.

How much you have to pay back and what your monthly payments will be are determined by the bankruptcy court and based on things like how much money you owe, how much money your creditors would have received had you filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy, and how much you can afford to pay per month. Chapter 13 is designed for individuals with regular income who want to pay their debts, but need some time to do so. To be eligible for this type of bankruptcy, you must have a steady source of income from which you can make monthly payments to your creditors for the next 3-5 years.

Unlike a Chapter 7 filing the debtor is required to follow a rigid repayment schedule making payments on both unsecured and secured debt for years to come are the draw back of a Chapter 13 filing. During this period of repayment, the bankruptcy proceeding remains open and it is often difficult for the debtor to get a credit card or even open a checking account.

When a person selects this type of bankruptcy filing he or she files a Chapter 13 petition with the Bankruptcy Court. When a corporation of business entity selects this type of bankruptcy filing it files a Chapter 11 petition with the Bankruptcy Court. A business’ Chapter 11 filing differs from a Chapter 13 filed by an actual person in that the business’ reorganization proposal may call for both payments from sales of some business assets and payments using future business income. Stockholder interests must also be addressed by a business filing a Chapter 11. The plan may ask the court to restructure the stockholders’ interests and modifying the company’s obligation of payment on a stockholders secured and unsecured debts. An individual person can file a chapter 11, but this should be done only in rare cases where there are many assets. The legal fees associated with the more complex Chapter 11 filings can be astounding!

Stockholder interests must also be addressed by a business filing a Chapter 11. The plan may ask the court to restructure the stockholders’ interests and modifying the company’s obligation of payment on a stockholders secured and unsecured debts. When an individual selects this type of bankruptcy filing he or she files a Chapter 13 petition with the Bankruptcy Court. When a corporation of business entity selects this type of bankruptcy filing it files a Chapter 11 petition with the Bankruptcy Court. A business’ Chapter 11 filing differs from a Chapter 13 filed by an actual person in that the business’ reorganization proposal may call for both payments from sales of some business assets and payments using future business income.

The New Bankruptcy Laws Make it More Difficult to File Chapter 7 Bankruptcy

The most recent changes to bankruptcy laws might cause it to be more challenging for you to file bankruptcy. If you’re in a higher income bracket you’ll no longer be allowed to utilize Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Instead, you’ll have to file under Chapter 13 bankruptcy and pay off at least a few of your creditors. If you would like to file bankkruptcy, you must take part in credit guidance prior to filing. You’re also required to go to additional counseling in the area of budgeting and debt management. The extra counseling is a prerequisite to acquire a release of your debts. And, since the law imposes new demands on attorneys, you might have a tougher time getting a attorney to accept your bankruptcy case.

Modified Eligibility for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy

Under the old bankruptcy laws, you were allowed to select the type of bankruptcy that appeared best for you. In most all cases that would be a Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation instead of a Chapter 13 bankruptcy repayment. But, if you’re in a high income bracket, the new bankruptcy laws won’t let you to file Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

To find out whether you’re able to file Chapter 7 bankruptcy under the new bankruptcy laws, you must first evaluate your “current monthly income” against the median income for a family unit of your size in your state. If your income is lower than or equivalent to the median, you’ll be able to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. If it’s more than the median, however, you must pass a new test to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. The other test is known as “the means test.”

The purpose of the means test is to ascertain whether you have sufficient free income, after deducting certain permitted expenses and mandatory debt payments, to make payments on a Chapter 13 plan. To find out whether you pass the means test, you deduct certain allowed expenses and debt payments from your current monthly income. If the money that’s left over after these computations is under a specific amount, you’ll be able to file for Chapter 7.

Counseling Prerequisites

Prior to filing for bankruptcy under either Chapter 7 or Chapter 13, you must complete credit counseling with an agency accredited by the United States Trustee’s office. The reason for this counseling requirement is that it helps you in discovering whether you really need to file for bankruptcy or whether an informal repayment program will help you recover your financial stability.

Counseling is necessary even if it’s obvious that a repayment plan isn’t doable for you. You’re required merely to take part in the counseling. You don’t have to consent to any repayment plan the agency offers. Even so, before you’ll be able to file bankruptcy, you’ll have to show any repayment plan the agency proposes along with a certificate certifying that you completed the counseling.

Near the end of your bankruptcy suit, you’ll have to attend another counseling session. This counseling session is fashioned to teach you personal financial management skills. You can’t have the discharge that cancels out your debts until you show proof to the court that you finished this requirement.

Lawyers May Be Harder to Hire — and a Great Deal More Pricey

The new bankruptcy laws do add numerous complicated requirements to bankruptcy filings. Some of these brand-new requirements impose more duties on attorneys leading to bankruptcy cases being more time intensive. Among the major new demands on lawyers is that they must now personally ensure the accuracy of all the info their clients give them. That extra demand means that attorneys must spend significant amounts of time on every bankruptcy suit. Thus, they’ll charge more to handle each bankruptcy suit. The new bankruptcy law requirements have actually squeezed a few bankruptcy attorneys out of the field totally.

Some Chapter 13 Filers Will Learn to Survive on Less

When you filed Chapter 13 bankruptcy under the previous bankruptcy laws, you had to dedicate all of your available income to your repayment plan. The old bankruptcy laws defined usable income as that which you had leftover after paying your actual living expenses. The new bankruptcy laws have changed this computation. While you still must hand over all of your disposable income, if your income is greater than the median in your state, you don’t get to figure your available income based on your real expenses. Instead, you have to calculate your spendable income using allowed expense sums prepared by the IRS. And these allowed expense numbers must be deducted from your average income during the six months before filing bankruptcy, not from your pay every month.

Added Changes

There are additional changes that can impact you negatively if you’re filing or looking at filing bankruptcy. Do your research on the new bankruptcy laws and make sure you understand the impact they have on your bankruptcy filing.

The term Chapter 7 bankruptcy is a term that is thrown about a great deal in the media, but clear and concise explanations of the term are usually not offered. Because of this, there is some confusion as to what exactly chapter 7 bankruptcy actually is and this sometimes leads to people making critical errors when filing!

Having to go through the proceedings necessary in bankruptcy is the last thing people want to do. However if their debts add up to more than what they have coming in sometimes this is unavoidable.

Numerous kinds of bankruptcy proceeding exist including but not limited to chapter 11 and chapter 7. In this article our focus is going to be on chapter 7 since this is more for individuals.

Chapter 7 bankruptcy explained

According to the law and the United States court system, Chapter 7 bankruptcy refers to liquidation of assets that are not legally exempt from liquidation in order to pay off creditors and debtors.

Chapter 7 is an option open to individuals, businesses, partnerships and corporations. There is, however, a special clause open to the individual within the framework of this chapter filing that is not available to the other entities.

That special clause is known as a “discharge.” What a discharge refers to is the freeing of the individual from certain debts.

How to get started filing chapter 7 bankruptcy

If you need to file for chapter 7 bankruptcy some of the things you will need are the following: proof of your full income as well as expenditures, proof of your existing liabilities and assets, statements for your financial affairs, copies of any expired executive contracts, and of course copies all your tax returns.

For the public there are a series of additional items that are necessary. They will include but are not necessarily limited to the following: copies of your reports for credit counseling as well as any payment plan programs, statements of income/employee payments and in the case of being a student, copies of documents stating interest payments on one’s student loans.

If you are in a situation where filing chapter 7 bankruptcy or any other bankruptcy type is a necessity, make sure you take a visit to the US courts website. Also make sure that if you do need to take action in the way of a bankruptcy proceeding you get a good professional lawyer to deal with your case.

Bankruptcy is an official, legal declaration of a debtor’s inability to pay off large amounts of debt. There are two kinds of bankruptcy available to debtors in the United States – Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 bankruptcy.

Chapter 7 bankruptcy is the most common kind of bankruptcy in the United States. The best benefit of Chapter 7 bankruptcy is that all dischargeable deaths are immediately wiped out — you don’t have to wait or pay off any remaining debts (at least the ones that are legally dischargable).

In Chapter 13 bankruptcy, the debtor will have a repayment plan so that they can pay off all their debts over a period of time. Some debts may be erased immediately, but this doesn’t always happen. One major advantage of Chapter 13 bankruptcy over Chapter 7 bankruptcy is that the debtor may be allowed to hold on to some assets which would have been otherwise liquidated under Chapter 7.

Don’t think chapter 13 bankruptcy is a complete easy street. However, here are a few examples of the kinds of debts which can only be cleared under Chapter 13 bankruptcy: – Debts from a divorce or settlement agreement – Court fees – Home Owners Association, condominium, or coop fees -Retirement plan loans – Non dischargeable tax debts – Debts from a previous bankruptcy.

Not all of your debts will be erased under either Chapter 13 or Chapter 7 bankruptcy. The following debts cannot be discharged under any kind of bankruptcy: – Alimony, child support, and other domestic support obligations – Student loans, except in extreme cases of “undue hardship” – Criminal penalties, and any debts you incurred as a result of committing fraud or other illegal or “malicious” acts.

Income tax debts can be discharged, but only under certain circumstances. The restrictions include, but are not limited to, that you filed a tax return for the year you owed the taxes, and the tax debt must be from a tax return filed at least two years before your bankruptcy filing.

Bankruptcy filings require that the debtor report all creditors and their addresses; debts which are not listed cannot be discharged. If the creditor has moved without providing a forwarding address, or the notice is lost in the mail or notice cannot be sent for any reason out of the debtor’s control, the debt will be wiped away as long as it is legally dischargeable. However, debts which cannot be assessed for reasons which are under the debtor’s control (e.g. the debt is not listed or the address given is incorrect) may not be discharged.

Filing bankruptcy doesn’t mean that your financial life is over. You may still have liens on your house, but at least now no one will be able to garnish your wages or access your bank account. Do expect to have difficulty getting loans. Cash is going to be your best friend for the next few years.

While filing for bankruptcy can relieve one of the burdens of debt, a debtor must do his or her due diligence to make sure that all dischargeable debts are, in fact, discharged and to know which debts cannot be discharged. Though a person sometimes must file for bankruptcy because of medical bills or other forces beyond their control, remember that you control what becomes of your life after bankruptcy.

Some people consider whether or not they should file bankruptcy or just let their mortgage lender foreclose on them? However, it is not as simple as a case of either/or and a decision cannot be made this easily. The reason a foreclosure occurs is because a mortgage lender isn’t paid their monthly mortgage payments.

Stopping the action can only be done by paying the lender. Another type of loan, a car loan, will result in the loss of your car through repossession if you are not diligent in paying your loan. If a person does not make their mortgage payments, they face the loss of their home through foreclosure.

For someone who cannot pay his or her debts, bankruptcy is a legal action they can take. The purpose of this action is to stop all the civil action against the debtor while the debtor is in bankruptcy. As a result, the mortgage lender is incapable of immediately continuing their foreclosure, or any other legal action. Still, the mortgage lender will respond by filing for relief from the stay, and once they are granted relief, the proceedings will continue. When it comes down to it, filing for bankruptcy will not prevent a foreclosure, nor will you be able to keep the home if you do not pay the mortgage lender. The best bankruptcy can do is slow down the process, but it cannot stop it entirely.

Even though it doesn’t stop foreclosure, bankruptcy can also be beneficial in that it will allow a person additional time to make payments, or make it easier to pay the lender. Because bankruptcy makes a lender suspend foreclosure, a debtor will have extra time to get the money to pay the lender. The debtor may also have have several of their other debts eliminated due to bankruptcy, so they are able to have additional money available to pay their mortgage. When filing a chapter 13 bankruptcy, a court mandated payment plan permits the debtor to spread out payments over a period of time, instead of forcing them to pay all at once.

However, not everyone qualifies for filing of bankruptcy in the first place, and those that do must pay sufficient legal fees. Legal bills can be quite high, and high enough that they outweigh the costs of catching up with the mortgage.

If you think that bankruptcy may help you stop or avoid foreclosure, talk with a licensed lawyer. Bankruptcy is a complicated legal process that should not be handled by yourself alone. The material offered in this article should serve only as a general guide, and for more specific information, you should contact a licensed lawyer in your state.

People used to say that the old bankruptcy law from 1978 was very strict, those people now would certainly be in for a shock when they see just how much stricter the all-new bankruptcy law now is.

So what are the main changes that have been made to the new bankruptcy law?

In order to make sure that only the most in need people qualify for bankruptcy, the government has created what they call the means test.

When you take the means test the government will calculate your monthly income minus a few allowed expenses. If it turns out that your monthly income is above the median income you will be obligated to file chapter 13 bankruptcy.

There are a series of strict guidelines set up by the IRS dedicated to your allowable expenses. For instance, you will be limited to 800 $ for all your housing costs each month and you will also be limited to 200 $ each month to pay for your food.

It is essential to understand that there are both state and federal bankruptcy laws. You will find that some state laws are more lenient than others.

You will be forced by the IRS to pay out around about 75 $ on a credit counseling course that you will have to attend within 180 days from the date you first file for bankruptcy.

With the new laws filing for bankruptcy has become even more paperwork driven! You will have to provide and fill out a whole load of forms in order to prove that you are worthy of bankruptcy.

Some of the things that you are going to have to provide the IRS with will include: a list of all your unsecured and secured creditors; a detailed list of your expenses and your monthly income; liabilities and assets; your most recent tax return; your photo ID and pay stubs.

There are now hefty legal fees that you will have to pay thanks to this all new bankruptcy law. This is because you will have to have a bankruptcy attorney certify that your figures are accurate.

The interpretation of the new bankruptcy law

By law you are not obligated to use the services of a bankruptcy lawyer, however it is certainly highly recommended that you do in less of course you have qualifications in this area.

The one thing that you must remember is that bankruptcy, no matter the circumstances, is always your absolute last option. If you file for bankruptcy it will stay on your public record for up to 10 years, so if you can avoid it you will be most likely better off.

An individual in the United States of America has two options when filing bankruptcy, chapter 7 whereby the individual’s debts are basically eliminated and chapter 13 in which the individual’s debts are allowed to be paid off over five years.

Businesses can use a Chapter 11 bankruptcy during which they can reorganize their debt until it’s paid off or renegotiated in order to remain in business until their financial house is back in order.

Following the new bankruptcy laws there are now tests in place to determine whether or not an individual can qualify the chapter 7. You will need to consult with a bankruptcy attorney to find out which bankruptcy you will be able to file under.

The main part of the test for an individual will consist of an income calculation to find out whether or not the individual has a monthly income that is higher than the state average, if he or she does the individual would then have to file under chapter 13 and would not be allowed access to chapter 7.

In Chapter 7 bankruptcy, all debts, including secured and unsecured can be discharged. However, some assets owned by the individual may be confiscated and sold by the court in order to satisfy a portion of the secured debt.

Clearly out of chapter 13 and chapter 7 bankruptcies, it is chapter 7 which will provide the most financial relief.

The paying off of debt over time

If the individual cannot qualify for a chapter 7 bankruptcy, they will still be able to file for chapter 13. In doing so they will be obligated to make payments on a monthly basis to a court trustee, who will in turn send out the payments to the individuals different creditors.

Out of the two individuals types of bankruptcy, chapter 13 and chapter 7, chapter 13 will help the individual to make good all their financial obligations and at the same time hold back creditors from attempting to take collection actions against the debtor in question.

In the past, a lot of people may have started out in Chapter 13 bankruptcy and found they were unable to meet the obligations and so moved into Chapter 7.

Under the new bankruptcy laws, which went into effect in 2005, the choice between the two types of bankruptcy is determined by the courts means test.

If the person has the means, current income level, to pay off their debts, they are restricted to filing for Chapter 13 whether they like it or not.

Whether you file for chapter 7 or 13, any assets or initial payments will first go to creditors with priority access. Priority access will be granted to but not limited to, student loans, part income taxes and generally most other government obligations you may have.

As soon as all of your creditors that have qualified for priority access have had all debt paid, the paying of all your unsecured creditors will then start to take place.

It is really, really vital to remember that what ever you do, what ever bankruptcy you can file for, bankruptcy really must be your last option. Once you’ve filed bankruptcy there is no turning back and it will remain on your public records for as long as 10 years.