As you know from the previous “Tax Facts”, when mortgage debt is forgiven, it can be excluded from income if it is qualified principle residence debt, and you know that a qualified principal residence must be the main home of the taxpayer. What happens to mortgage debt that is cancelled on a second home, rental [...]
March 2010
This introduces a series on what can be called unbundled law. Others call it an à la carte approach to offering legal services to individuals. The main difference with this approach is that a client represents herself for some portion of her participation in a legal matter rather than having an attorney represent her for [...]
When you can’t make the payments on a confirmed Chapter 13 plan, there are hard choices to make. There are several alternatives that we’ll explore over the next week. My usual favorite option, however, is a hardship discharge under §1328(b). A bankruptcy discharge under §1328(b) wipes out all the debt that would have been [...]
The IRS wants you to know, in Tax Fact 7, that you must use Form 982 in order to claim that forgiven mortgage debt should not be included in your income for tax purposes. IRS Form 982, entitled “Reduction of Tax Attributes Due to Discharge of Indebtedness” must be attached to your federal income tax [...]
Every individual who files a bankruptcy case must file a means test form. It doesn’t even matter if you are exempt from the means test, you still have to fill out the form. It’s complicated. (I thought that was only for relationships on Facebook – maybe not). Why? You have to prove to the satisfaction [...]
