Dove law firm Houston, TX: A Chapter 13 bankruptcy allows you to keep your stuff and get on a more affordable repayment plan with your creditors. You’ll need to have enough income to afford the payments and be below the maximum total debt limits (currently nearly $400,000 for unsecured debts and $1 million-plus for secured debts). A court will approve the Chapter 13 repayment plan, which usually lasts three to five years, and your trustee will collect your payments and disburse them to your creditors. Once you finish the plan, the remainder of the unsecured debts is discharged.
Student loan interest paid by you or someone else: In the past, if parents or someone else paid back a student loan incurred by a student, no one got a tax break. To get a deduction, the law said that you had to be both liable for the debt and actually pay it yourself. But now there’s an exception. You may know that you might be eligible to take a deduction but even if someone else pays back the loan, the IRS treats it as though they gave you the money, and you then paid the debt. So, a student who’s not claimed as a dependent can qualify to deduct up to $2,500 of student loan interest paid by you or by someone else. See extra details at Bankruptcy attorney Houston TX.
Pick Up Capital Gains if You’re in a Low Tax Bracket: The end of the year is also a good time for some people to sell stocks that have appreciated significantly in value. This can be a particularly good strategy for those who are in the 10% and 12% tax brackets since their capital gains tax may be zero. The stocks can then be repurchased, which resets the basis and minimizes the amount of tax to be paid on future gains. Even if you’re not in the lowest tax brackets, you may want to sell winning stocks to reset the basis if you’re also harvesting losses. “What you want to do is balance (gains) with stocks that have losses,” Barlin says.
Who Should File Chapter 13 Bankruptcy? Many people think of bankruptcy court as the final stop on a path to financial ruin, the only option left when repaying debts seems impossible. But there’s hope even in bankruptcy, and Chapter 13 of the federal bankruptcy code offers the closest thing to a soft landing. Sometimes called the Wage Earner’s Bankruptcy, Chapter 13 allows those with enough income to repay all or part of their debts an alternative to liquidation. It’s bankruptcy for those whose biggest problem is dealing with creditors’ demands for immediate payment, not lack of income.