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THE CONSUMER BANKRUPTCY LETTER Feb. 9, 2004
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CLIENT'S TAX DEBTS DISCHARGEABLE? NEW RESEARCH SERVICE ANNOUNCED
TAKE THE GUESSWORK OUT OF IT. GET THE ANSWERS YOU NEED WITH MORGAN KING'S ONLINE RESEARCH SERVICE
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KING'S TAX DISCHARGE RESEARCH SERVICE
You fill out Morgan King's form online and press SUBMIT, which sends the information to King's web site, TaxJustice.com. Your client's tax transcripts will be analyzed to determine whether or not the tax liabilities meet the statutory criteria for discharge in chapter 7 or chapter 13.
Five years of tax debts are analyzed for a fixed research fee of $375. Additional years are assessed an additional fee of $50 per tax year analyzed.
You may pay the fees online. Result turn-around time is from 10 to 45 days, depending on the information available from the IRS and how long it takes to obtain relevant transcripts. Urgent evaluations are available for with a premium charge added.
You can provide the transcripts, or let King obtain the transcripts. All you have to do is obtain your client's signature on a power-of-attorney. A power-of-attorney form may be downloaded from the web site.
To proceed with a research request, click on the image at left, or the link above.
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BANKRUPTCY THIS WEEK
NEW BOOK RINGS ALARM ON FINANCIAL STATUS OF AMERICAN MIDDLE CLASS
In The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Mothers & Fathers Are Going Broke" (Basic Books, $26), authors Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi report the following alarming statistics:
In the past 25 years, the number of families in bankruptcy has increased 400 percent, and housing foreclosures are up 350 percent.
The average middle-class family can no longer buy a house without putting both husband and wife to work.
Parents with young children are more than twice as likely to go bankrupt than any other segment of the population.
More than 90 percent of those in bankruptcy would qualify as middle-class.
If these trends continue, the authors contend, more than 5 million families with children will file for bankruptcy by the end of this decade.
"That would mean that across the country nearly one of every seven families with children would have declared itself flat broke, losers in the great American economic game," Warren and Tyagi write.
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BANKRUPTCY REFORM NEWS
KEY CONGRESSMEN SEND LETTER ABOUT REFORM BILL
The following "Dear Colleague" letter was sent to members of the US House of Representatives by key Democrat members regarding bankruptcy reform.
February 4, 2004
Dear Colleague:
Last week, the House debated a provision in the bankruptcy bill that would eliminate most conflict of interest restrictions on investment bankers working in bankruptcy reorganizations. The financial scandals in recent years have demonstrated that these investor protections are more important today than they were in 1938 when Congress adopted them. In response to the problems highlighted by recent scandals and large bankruptcies, Congress has moved to tighten rules against conflicts of interest among not just investment bankers, but other professionals including attorneys and accountants.
The current bankruptcy bill takes us in the wrong direction. That is why we supported a motion to instruct the conferees on the bankruptcy bill that would have eliminated this dangerous step backwards. If Congress wants to protect the integrity of the bankruptcy process, the last thing we should do is open the door to more conflicts of interest.
We urge you to read the informative story on the subject from today's Washington Post, which is reprinted below.
Sincerely,
John Conyers, Jr.
Ranking Democratic Member
Committee on the Judiciary
Jerrold Nadler
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LAW UPDATES
DEBTOR'S SCHEDULES OMISSIONS WERE FRAUDULENT
The bankruptcy court erred in finding that the debtors' omissions from their schedules were not made fraudulently. Reckless indifference can constitute fraudulent intent. The debtors' testimony that they had not read their schedules (which contained several errors) rose to the level of reckless indifference, justifying denial of the debtors' discharge.
In re Bren (8th Cir. BAP 2004)
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NOT NECESSARY TO REOPEN CASE TO ADJUDICATE HARDSHIP DISCHARGE
Debtor's motion to reopen her bankruptcy case to litigate hardship discharge of student loan was denied because debtor did not need to reopen her case to litigate a hardship discharge.
In re Durante (Bankr. S.D. 2004)
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