Susan Dynarski’s blog post in The New York Times’ The Upshot blog sheds a lot of light on what we don’t know about federal student loans, which are the vast majority of all student loans. Dynarski’s biggest frustration is the Department of Education’s lack of statistical expertise on monitoring this massive debt program, noting that …
NYT Calls for New Authority to Monitor Federal Student Loans Read More »
Debtors considering chapter 7 New York bankruptcy often learn that if their incomes are above their state’s median family income, they must take the means test. The consequence of failing it would be converting their cases to chapter 13 (or, less commonly, chapter 11). This isn’t true for all debtors, notably business debtors, and some …
‘Business Debts’ Might Keep Debtors in Chapter 7 Read More »
Most people don’t think about growing their families when filing New York bankruptcy, but bringing a child into your family can add a few wrinkles to a filing that debtors might want to know about, particularly when a pregnancy happens by accident. Probably the most common place where a new child will (or won’t) affect …
There’s more to taxes in chapter 13 bankruptcy attorney Brooklyn NY than what I’ve written about already, tax refunds and deductions, so now is as good a time as any to discuss some of the other major topics. First on the list is how do you file your taxes while in bankruptcy? The answer for …
It’s not a phenomenon that’s affected people filing New York bankruptcy yet, but it might become one in the not-so-distant future: Some federal courts in other states are ruling that tax debts that would otherwise be dischargeable are in fact not. Here’s the background. Typically, discharging a tax debt requires the debtor to meet three …
Bankruptcy Courts Becoming Less Forgiving of Late Tax Returns Read More »
In discussing reverse mortgages and New York bankruptcy, I demurred on whether they “work as intended.” As a brief reintroduction, a reverse mortgage gives the homeowner equity payouts over time rather than the homeowner “purchasing” equity with monthly payments. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) recently issued a report that addressed the effectiveness of reverse …
CFPB Reports on Homeowners’ Reverse Mortgage Complaints Read More »
There’s a lot of bad reporting on student loans out there. Frequently, you will hear about how student loans aren’t a problem because the people with high balances are a tiny minority of all student loan debtors, or that higher debts tend to coincide with higher incomes. The issue isn’t that these points are strictly …
Student Loan Defaults Mounting Despite Income-Based Repayment Programs Read More »
A reverse mortgage is when a homeowner who owns a property free of any other mortgages and is at least 62 years old borrows money against the home’s equity. It’s “reverse” in the sense that the home’s equity decreases as the money is paid out to the homeowner instead of rising with each mortgage payment. …
You may have heard stories of underwater homeowners walking away from their homes and allowing the banks to foreclose on them without a contest. This might not sound so awful if you think you have no hope of catching up on mortgage payments, but it’s a very bad idea for multiple reasons. (1) Until the …
4 Reasons ‘Walking Away’ From an Underwater Home Is a Bad Idea Read More »
Usually debtors in chapter 13 New York bankruptcy concern themselves with what happens to their tax refunds, which trustees will keep for the creditors, but there’s another way the tax code intersects with bankruptcy—but this time to the advantage of debtors: deductions. The reason tax deductions can make a difference for debtors in chapter 13 …
Save Money in Chapter 13 by Ferreting Out Tax Deductions From Payments Read More »
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