Are you stuck paying tens of thousands of dollars in back taxes and penalties from old tax debts? If your tax debt does not fall into any of the following categories, then it is very likely your Woodlands Bankruptcy Attorney can get the debt discharged in Chapter 7 bankruptcy:

1. Any tax for which a return was not filed, for which a fraudulent return was filed, or which the debtor willfully attempted to evade;

2. Any tax with respect to which a late return was filed within two years before filing for bankruptcy;

3. Income Taxes:
a – for which a return was last due within 3 years of filing for bankruptcy; or
b – assessed within 240 days before filing for bankruptcy; or
c – not yet assess, but assessable after filing bankruptcy.

4. Property taxes assessed before filing and payable without penalty less than one year before filing.

If your tax debt does fall into one of the categories described above, then you may be eligible to discharge your debt at a later date provided you did not willfully attempt to evade the tax.

Contact The Shea Law Firm at (832) 592-7913 if you need to speak with an experienced bankruptcy lawyer about how to lose your tax debt, credit card debt, and debt from medical bills.

Student loan debt is often difficult to get discharged by the Houston bankruptcy court. There are so many factors involved that even if you did not satisfy all of the criteria in your original bankruptcy case you may become eligible for discharge years later based on events such as unemployment, reduced income, or disability.

Fortunately, if your facts and circumstances change over the years since your Chapter 7 discharge your Woodlands Bankruptcy Attorney can file additional adversary proceedings to continue to pursue discharge without going through an entirely new bankruptcy provided the student loans existed at the time your previous bankruptcy petition was filed. If you have student loans that you received after your last bankruptcy petition was filed then they would not be eligible to be included in this special procedure.

Call The Shea Law Firm at (832) 592-7913 if you need an experienced bankruptcy lawyer.

Student loans are a booming industry. The government guarantees the loan so schools everywhere saw a wonderful opportunity to raise tuition to the sky. And since it is not easy to discharge a student loan in bankruptcy lenders were almost always standing by ready to lend unsuspecting students large sums of money on a degree that may not be worth the price paid. What can you do if you are being buried by student loans?

It is not easy to get a student loan discharged in bankruptcy. Not easy at all, but it can be done under very specific conditions. It all comes down to the judge’s definition of “undue hardship.”

“Undue Hardship” is the legal standard used in the Bankruptcy Code to determine if a student loan should be discharged in a bankruptcy proceeding. However, Congress never defined what they meant by “undue hardship” so each judge has been left to create their own definition. Almost everyone agrees that an undue hardship is something more than regular hardship, but there are differences of opinion to how onerous the hardship must be.

Most courts have relied on the Brunner test in evaluating undue hardship. Under the Brunner test you may prevail on an undue hardship claim if: Read more…

One of the key features in a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy proceeding is the ability to discharge certain debts and provide a meaningful fresh start to an overwhelmed person or family. It is important to understand that not every debt can be discharged in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy. One of the significant exceptions to a discharge order are debts for money, property, services, or an extension, renewal, or refinancing of credit, to the extent obtained by false pretenses, a false representation, or actual fraud, other than a statement respecting the debtor’s financial condition. It may not seem like it at first glance, but some common purchases or debts can easily fall into this exception and end up not being discharged. If you want your bankruptcy attorney to discharge as much of your debt as possible, then keep reading.

As a bankruptcy attorney in the Houston federal court I see this exception to the discharge rule most often come into play in two more specific subcategories. These are: Read more…

Bankruptcy in Houston is not an automatic procedure. You do not get your debts discharged simply by filing your petition no matter what anyone who is not an attorney may tell you. Bankruptcy is a legal process between you, your creditors, and the bankruptcy trustee. In order to have as many of your debts discharged as possible you must protect your rights. If you do not protect your rights nobody else will. In the case of In Re Crandall the bankruptcy filer did not have a Houston Bankruptcy Attorney, and this is what happened.

Mr. Crandall decided to Read more…