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');document.write('Missing Name in Notary Acknowledgment Really Means Bad Mortgage in Massachusetts
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Incomplete notary acknowledgment can destroy a mortgage\'s enforceability against third parties Related posts:

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');document.write('Tax Fact 10-Mortgage Debt Forgiveness: Forms 1099-A and 1099-C
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If your home is foreclosed, sold at a short sale, or if you give the home back to your lender in satisfaction of your debt, IRS Tax Fact 10 tells us to watch for a 1099-C or 1099-A statement in the mail during the next calendar year. Lenders are required to send the 1099 forms [...] Related posts:

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');document.write('Tax Fact 9-Make Sure Address Current With Mortgage Lender
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Most home lenders, banks and government agencies are required to notify you and the IRS if they cancel all or a part of your debt. This is done by the issuance of Form 1099-C or, at times, Form 1099-A. By law, these forms must show the amount of debt forgiven and the fair market value [...] Related posts:

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');document.write('Tax Fact 8-Mortgage Debt Forgiveness for Property Not Principal Residence
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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 [...] Related posts:

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');document.write('Tax Fact 7-IRS Form 982 is Important
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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 [...] Related posts:

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');document.write('Tax Fact 6-Cancelled Debt From a Refinance Can Be Taxable Income
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In explaining tax on mortgage debt forgiveness, the IRS stresses, as tax fact number 6, that proceeds of refinance debt used for purposes, other than buying, building, or making a substantial improvement in the principle residence, do not qualify for exclusion from income if the debt is cancelled. This can be important. Many lenders require [...] Related posts:

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');document.write('Tax Fact 5-Refinance Debt for Improvements is Excludable
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IRS tax fact number 5 tells us that refinanced debt proceeds used for the purpose of substantially improving your personal residence qualify for exclusion from income if the debt is later is cancelled. In other words, if you re-finance your principal residence home mortgage and use the excess funds (the portion not used to pay [...] Related posts:

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');document.write('Tax Fact 4-Only Certain Mortgage Debt Qualifies For Exclusion
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Mortgage debt forgiveness is considered to be income unless it is excluded. Principal residence debt has its own exclusion from income if it is cancelled or forgiven by the lender. To ?qualify? it must be what is defined by the Internal Revenue Service as ?qualified principal residence debt?. The debt must have been used to [...] Related posts:

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');document.write('Tax Fact 3-Debt Cancelled through Mortgage Restructuring is Eligible
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The IRS, in listing ten important facts about mortgage debt forgiveness, points out that debt on a principal residence that is cancelled by restructuring the loan in cooperation with the lender can exclude it from taxable income. Subject to the two million dollar limit on the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007, a write [...] Related posts:

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');document.write('Tax Fact 2-Mortgage Debt Forgiveness Exclusion Financial Limits
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In order to qualify for full exclusion from income when debt is cancelled on the taxpayer?s principal residence, the amount of debt cancelled cannot be more than two million dollars for a married couple or individual; or if an individual is married but filing a separate return, the debt cancelled cannot be more than one [...] Related posts:

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');document.write('I Can?t Afford A Bankruptcy Lawyer?Do I Really Need One?
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You are thinking that you may need to file bankruptcy but you are concerned that you do not have the money for a bankruptcy lawyer. You are wondering whether you can afford to pay a qualified attorney to handle your case for you. Perhaps the better question is–can you afford not to!Just recently, I learned [...]

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');document.write('Do I have to see an attorney that practices in the same county I reside?
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You live in one county, you are considering an attorney in a different county — does it matter? Do you have to see an attorney in the same county you live? (This is part of what you might be considering when you consider who to hire… for other considerations, see these posts: Wendell Sherk’s Shopping [...]

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');document.write('Chapter 13 Bankruptcy and Cars: ?Life is a Highway?
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Filing a Chapter 13 bankruptcy lets you do things you couldn’t otherwise do in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy. One of the things you can do is “cram down” a vehicle. It sounds a little violent, and I’m sure it feels that way to an auto lender.Here’s how it works. Let’s say you owe $20,000 on [...]

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');document.write('Be Careful About Information On the Internet
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I know you’ve heard it before (and it’s been written about before, e.g., here, Jay Fleischman’s Where Do You Find Credible Bankruptcy Information), but I just finished meeting with a new client — she almost hadn’t come, having emailed me yesterday saying she had done research on the internet and concluded she could not do [...]

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');document.write('What Are the Duties of the Trustee in Bankruptcy?
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When you file a Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy case, a Trustee is appointed to administer your case. This person is an independent contractor who works for the Office of the U.S. Trustee in the Department of Justice. Although they are commonly attorneys, there is no requirement that you be admitted to practice law [...]

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');document.write('FYI ? Elizabeth Warren
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Elizabeth Warren is being proposed by some as the best choice to head the new Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, as discussed here in a New York Times editorial, as well as here at a USA Today article. Who is she? The short answer is that she’s a bankruptcy expert at Harvard Law School, and [...]

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');document.write('What Are the Minimum (or Maximum) Debt Amounts to File for Bankruptcy?
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One question we’re often asked is what the minimum debt amount is to allow someone to file for bankruptcy. The answer is very simple: there is *no* minimum debt amount to be eligible to file. This is true for Chapter 7, Chapter 11, Chapter 12 and Chapter 13.How did the rumor that you need to [...]

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');document.write('Can I Pay My Creditors Even After I Received A Bankruptcy Discharge?
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Yes, you can pay your creditors after you received a bankruptcy discharge. Nothing prohibits you from voluntarily paying your creditors, either one or two creditors that are important to you, or all of them. Of course, as a bankruptcy lawyer, it begs the question– if you want to pay your creditors and assuming that you [...]

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');document.write('Filing For Chapter 7 Bankruptcy! Do I Need To Have A Job?
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It is not necessary to have a job to file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy. In fact, the filing of Chapter 7 is probably one of the few instances in your life where it helps to not be employed.When a Chapter 7 is filed, the debtor must show that they do not have enough income available [...]

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');document.write('What Are The Bankruptcy Laws To Be Aware Of?
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The bankruptcy trustee can sell assets you no longer own under his avoiding powers for the benefit of creditors.What, you say? If it isn’t mine, what rights do my creditors have in those assets? It all depends on how you parted with property as to whether bankruptcy law allows the trustee to recover the asset [...]

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