Limited Time Oregon Tax Amnesty Program

September 24, 2009

Do you have un-filed tax returns? Have you been waiting to amend an Oregon tax return but were afraid to do so because of penalties and interest? Well, now is your chance to get caught up.
What is Oregon Amnesty?  Oregon Amnesty can eliminate all penalties and half of the interest you would normally owe for late [...]

Read the full article →

Changes to the Guaranteed Student Loan Program Sidestep Core Issues

September 19, 2009

Recently there has been considerable publicity concerning one provision of HR 3221, the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2009, which passed in the House of Representatives on September 17 but may yet be derailed or modified beyond recognition in the Senate. The title in question (II-A and B) discontinues origination of Stafford loans [...]

Read the full article →

Tax Credits Questionable Solution to Health Care Funding

August 24, 2009

Buried within most of the variants of President Obama’s proposal for extending health care to 47 million uninsured Americans is the notion that tax credits will somehow provide the financing. Tax credits have become popular with politicians in recent years because they look, superficially, revenue neutral. They are not.  A tax credit is money the [...]

Read the full article →

How Not to Deal with the Private Student Loan Problem

August 21, 2009

Until passage of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 (BAPCPA), private student loans were treated as ordinary unsecured consumer debt.  That badly misnamed piece of legislation  made private education loans nondischargeable in bankruptcy except in cases of undue hardship.
Several measures to relieve private student loan debtors have been introduced in Congress [...]

Read the full article →

Cash for Clunkers: Echoes of Subprime Mortgage Financing

July 30, 2009

 The present Administration’s wildly popular “cash for clunkers” program, a conceptually confusing mishmash of economic stimulus and incentive for environmentally conscious consuming, has drawn much criticism from diverse quarters. However, little attention seems to have been paid to whether the automobile purchases in question make economic sense for the consumers themselves. To the extent that [...]

Read the full article →

Oregon Homestead Exemption Increased

July 30, 2009

On Friday, June 26, 2009, Oregon Revised Statute 18.345(d) motor vehicle exemption value increased to $3,000 per person.    The legislature also amended the Oregon homestead exemption to allow $40,000 for a single debtor and $50,000 for a married couple making a joint claim.  Oregon eliminated a former distinction between a mobile home located on land that [...]

Read the full article →

Are Bankruptcy and 12-Step Programs Compatible?

June 30, 2009

In my view, there is no question that they are – and that lay counselors in these programs who advise otherwise do not understand the bankruptcy process.  Steps 8 and 9 of the program of Alcoholics Anonymous (copied verbatim by most other 12-step programs) are, respectively (8) Made a list of all persons we had [...]

Read the full article →

Who is the US Trustee?

April 26, 2009

The Office of the U. S. Trustee was established by Congress in the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1978.  It was intended to help regulate or supervise certain aspects of the bankruptcy process.  Congress makes policy decisions by passing laws; the Executive supervises the enforcement of laws passed by Congress.  The US Trustee was created as [...]

Read the full article →

Denial of Bankruptcy Discharge a Serious Matter

March 30, 2009

The bankruptcy court is generally reluctant to deny discharge to an honest debtor.   In citing several 9th Circuit Court of Appeals cases that repeat a pithy quote, Judge Randall Dunn states:
“A denial of a discharge is an act of mammoth proportions, and must not be taken lightly. In light of this gravity, this Court and [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →