Hi, I’m Mike Greiner, I’m a bankruptcy attorney here with The Financial Law Group here in Warren, Michigan. Our website is financiallawgroup.com, and our phone number is (586) 693-2000. And I’m here to talk to you today about taxes, an issue that none of us like to talk about. Taxes are actually dischargeable in some cases in bankruptcy, and that usually a big surprise to most people. Most people think that, if the, if the federal government or the state is coming after you, there’s nothing you can do about it, and that’s actually not the case.
If you have a tax debt that’s more than three years old and there’s a good chance that that tax debt would be dischargeable in bankruptcy. That’s as long as you’ve filed your tax return on time. The way that you calculate the amount of time that has to be is if you look at the date that the tax was accessed, for example the date that you filed the tax return or that the last date the tax return could have been filed. So, say, April fifteenth, and then go three years from that date. Any taxes that are more than three years old based on that calculation would be the type of thing that would be dischargeable in bankruptcy. Now, even if the tax that is newer than that, it is still something that could be handled in a bankruptcy. In those cases we might look at a chapter 13 case.
What we can do, we can file the case. We will set up a payment arrangement, essentially, with the IRS that will allow you to pay back the taxes generally speaking interest free over 5 years. Usually, that’s a better deal than you’ll get working directly with the IRS, although, not always. That is an option for people who might have tried to do something with the IRS but wasn’t quite able to work something out or if the tax is a smaller amount of money such as, $10,000, where it would be the type of thing that would be a reasonable payment over time. That has worked out quite well for a number of my clients as well. If you owe some tax liability and are interested in talking about some of your options please feel free to give me a call at my office. I’d be happy to meet with you personally. My phone number is 586-693-2000.