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Basic Rules about Business Bankruptcy

If your business needs bankruptcy help, getting it done might not be much harder than a personal bankruptcy. But it depends on how your business is set up and how much you owe.

A couple blogs ago I said that I would soon explain some of the most important benefits of filing a business Chapter 13 case. And I said we’d start by assuming that your business is a sole proprietorship. In other words, the business and you are together legally as a single entity. That is, you have NOT set up your business as a separate legal entity–a corporation or limited liability company (LLC), or a formal or informal partnership.

But first, what if your business IS NOT a simple sole proprietorship, but instead is in one of these other forms?

If so, and you want to preserve your business through some kind of bankruptcy solution, I’ve got no choice but to start by telling you that it’s time (probably past the time) to have a meeting with a competent business bankruptcy attorney.  There are advantages and disadvantages of every form of doing business. But one practical disadvantage of running your business as a corporation/LLC/partnership is that this tends to make things significantly more complicated in the bankruptcy world.

That being said, here are a few straightforward things I can tell you that will make you just a bit more prepared when you visit me or another attorney:

1. Only an “individual” can file Chapter 13. Meaning that you and your sole proprietorship can together file a Chapter 13. But a corporation, or LLC, or partnership can’t.

2. Chapter 13s are sometimes called “wage-earner plans,” probably because one legal requirement is that you have a “regular income.” But that just means “income sufficiently stable and regular to… make payments under a plan under Chapter 13.” So if your sole proprietorship business income—combined with any other income—is even somewhat stable, you may well qualify under this requirement.

3.  But even if your business IS a sole proprietorship, you and your business together CAN’T file a Chapter 13 case if your total unsecured debt is $360,475 or more, or your total secured debt is $1,010,650 or more. These may seem like relatively high amounts but remember they include BOTH personal and business debts. Also the unsecured debt amounts can include less obvious ones such as the portions of your mortgages and other secured debts in excess of the value of the collateral. So a $750,000 debt secured by real estate now worth $550,000 equates to $200,000 in unsecured debt. And that’s before even looking at your regular unsecured debts.

4. If you are over one of the above debt limits, you can still file a Chapter 7 case, but that is almost never a way to save a business. Otherwise, your option is a Chapter 11, which is a hugely more complicated repayment procedure than Chapter 13.

5. A business corporation, LLC, or partnership can file a Chapter 11 case to keep the business afloat. But because of the very high attorney fees (easily 10 times the cost of a Chapter 13), and high filing fee plus ongoing court and U.S. Trustee fees, Chapter 11 is unfortunately not a practical solution for most small businesses. One of the biggest shortcomings in the bankruptcy world is the lack of a cost-effective method to deal with small business reorganizations. Many local bankruptcy courts have tried to address this with streamlined “fast-track” Chapter 11s, but the cost is often still prohibitively high.

As I said, if you are trying to save your financially struggling business, it is very important that you get competent business bankruptcy advice, and as soon as possible. You have likely been working extremely hard at trying to keep your business alive. Now you need a game plan to start directing your energies in a constructive direction.

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Can an Individual Chapter 7 Case Ever Save Your Business?

Chapter 13 can be a great way to keep certain small businesses afloat, but how about Chapter 7? Can’t it ever be a simpler and cheaper way to do so?

In my last blog I said that Chapter 7 is “seldom the right option if you own a business that you want to keep operating.”  The reason I gave for this is that Chapter 7 is a “liquidating bankruptcy,” so the bankruptcy trustee could make you surrender any valuable components of your business. These comments deserve more of an explanation.

At the moment a Chapter 7 bankruptcy is filed, all of the assets of the debtor (the person on whose behalf the case is filed) are automatically transferred to a new legal entity called the bankruptcy “estate.” A trustee is assigned to oversee this estate, which in most cases means that the trustee focuses on whether or not there are any estate assets worth collecting and distributing to creditors. The debtor can protect, or “exempt,” certain categories and amounts of assets, which remain the debtor’s and can’t be taken by the trustee. The idea is that people filing bankruptcy should be allowed to keep a minimum threshold of assets upon which to base their fresh financial start. In the vast majority of consumer Chapter 7 cases, the debtor can “exempt from property of the estate” all of the assets, leaving nothing for the trustee to collect.  This is called a “no-asset” estate.

If you own a business, can you file a Chapter 7 case and still continue operating the business?  That breaks down into two questions.

The first question is whether you can exempt all of the value of the business from the property of the bankruptcy estate, with the business either as a “going concern” or broken up into its asset components.

Many very small businesses are operated by and are completely reliant for their survival on the services of its one or two owners.  IF so, they cannot be sold as a “going concern”—an operating business—separate from their owners. So when faced with this kind of situation, a Chapter 7 trustee must consider whether he or she can sell any of the various assets that make up the business, or whether instead the debtor can exempt all of these business assets.

The assets of a very small business can include tools and equipment, receivables (money owed by customers for goods or services previously provided), supplies, inventory, and cash on hand or in an account. Sometimes the business will have some value in a brand name or trademark, a below-market lease, or in some other unusual asset.  

Whether a business’ assets are exempt depends on the nature and value of those assets, and on the particular exemptions that apply to them. By way of examples, it is not unusual for a small business to own nothing more than a modest amount of business equipment, and in such cases the applicable state or federal “tool of trade” exemption may well cover all that equipment. So indeed, it is possible for a debtor who owns a business to have a no-asset Chapter 7 estate.

But that’s when we get to the second question: is the trustee willing to let the business continue operating in spite of its potential liability risks for the estate?

What’s this about “liability risks”? Remember that everything you own, including your business, immediately becomes part of the bankruptcy estate when your bankruptcy case is file. So in effect, your business becomes the trustee’s to operate. And that means that the estate becomes potentially liable for damages caused by the business. The classic example: a debtor who is a residential roofing subcontractor, drops a load of shingles on someone the day after filing a Chapter 7 case, and is then sued by the injured party. The bankruptcy estate, and arguably the trustee, may well be liable. That is why the Chapter 7 trustees’ mantra about an ongoing business is “shut it down.”

There may be exceptions. It depends on the trustee, the nature of the business, and whether the business has sufficient liability insurance. It is their judgment call, and so this is very much area where you want to be represented by an attorney who knows all of the trustees on the local Chapter 7 trustee panel and how they will respond to this issue.

 So, there’s no question that it is risky to file a Chapter 7 case when you want to continue operating a business. You need to be confident that the business assets are exempt from the bankruptcy estate, and that the trustee will not require the closing of the business to avoid any potential business liability.

And that’s without even getting into details such as your potential loss of control of the business to the trustee, and the potential loss of business’ ongoing income to the estate.

I might well have not stated it strongly enough when I said that Chapter 7 is “seldom the right option if you own a business that you want to keep operating.”  It would take a rare set of circumstances for Chapter 7 to be the best way to go.

 

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Bankruptcy Can Save Your Business

Bankruptcy isn’t just for cleaning up after the death of a business. It can keep your business alive.

Bankruptcy saved General Motors. That business got out of a lot of it debt and restructured its operations, and ended up saving a lot of jobs. If you operate your own small business, bankruptcy may be able to save your job, too.

Let’s assume you have a very small, very simple business. One so simple that you did not form a corporation or any other kind of legal entity when you set up the business. And to keep this blog simple, assume you don’t have any partners.  You own and operate your business by yourself for yourself, in what the law calls a sole proprietorship.

There are advantages and disadvantages of operating your business this way. For better or worse you and your business are legally treated pretty much as a single unit—unlike a corporation which owns its own assets and has its own debts distinct from the owner(s). In the right circumstances, a sole proprietorship is a much easier type of business to deal with in a bankruptcy.

Chapter 7, “straight bankruptcy,” is seldom the right option if you own a business that you want to keep operating during and after the bankruptcy. Chapter 7 is also called “liquidating bankruptcy.” You can write off (“discharge”) your debts in return for liquidation—the surrender of your assets to the trustee to sell and distribute to your creditors. Except that in most Chapter 7 cases everything you own is protected–“exempt”—so that you lose nothing or very little. But if you own an ongoing business, although some of the assets of an ongoing business may be exempt, usually not all of them are.  So the Chapter 13 trustee could require you to give crucial parts of your business to him or her to liquidate.

Instead, a Chapter 13 case—ironically sometimes misnamed a “wage-earner plan”—is much better designed to enable you keep your personal and business assets. You get immediate relief from your creditors, and for a much longer period of time, usually along with a significant reduction in the amount of debt to be repaid.  So Chapter 13 helps both your immediate cash flow and the business’ long-term prospects. It is also an excellent way to address tax debts, often a major issue for struggling businesses. Overall, it is a relatively inexpensive tool that combines the discipline of a court-approved plan of payments to creditors with the flexibility of allowing you to continue operating your business.

In the next few blogs I’ll explain some of the most important benefits of filing a business Chapter 13 case. But in the meantime, please understand that when you own ANY kind of business, solving your financial problems will be more complicated.  Sometimes only a little more complicated, other times much more so. Because we’re not just dealing with the size and timing of a paycheck, but rather with all the financial and practical aspects of running a business. Plus, issues of timing are often important in business bankruptcy cases, requiring more pre-bankruptcy planning to chart the best path for you. So, no matter how small your business, be sure to get competent legal advice, and do so as soon as possible. You have a lot at stake.

 

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Chapter 13 Tames Your Income Tax Monster

A “straight” Chapter 7 can write off some income taxes. But if you owe recent taxes, or multiple years of taxes, Chapter 13 is usually a much better way to go. It often provides tremendous advantages over both Chapter 7 and dealing with the IRS on your own.

I’ll illustrate this with an example, and then explain it in my next blog.

Let’s say a husband and wife owe $35,000 in a combination of medical bills and credit cards, requiring monthly payments of $800. After the husband lost his long-time job back in 2006, he followed his dream of starting a business, which was starting to make progress when it got hammered in the Great Recession. He closed it in 2010 and found a reliable job a number of months later, although one where he earns 30% less than he did at the one lost years earlier. His business had generated some income, but barely enough for the couple to meet their bare essentials. So there was no money to pay the quarterly estimated taxes, and they had no money to pay the amount due when they filed their joint tax returns for 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010. They expect to come out even for the 2011 tax year because of tax withholdings from their wages. To try to simplify the facts, assume they owe the IRS $4,000 in taxes, $750 in penalties, and $250 in interest for each of those five years. So their total IRS debt for those years is $25,000—including $20,000 in the original taxes, $3,750 in penalties, and $1,250 in interest. The wife has had consistent employment throughout this time, with pay raises only enough to keep up with inflation. They filed each of the tax returns in mid-April when they were due, and have been making modest payments when they have been able to, but those have not even been keeping up with the penalties and interest. Assume they have no secured debts—no mortgage or vehicle loans. They can realistically afford to pay about $500 a month to all of their creditors, not enough to pay their regular creditors much less the IRS.

Outside of bankruptcy, the IRS would likely require payment in full of the entire tax obligation, with interest and sometimes penalties continuing to accrue until everything was paid in full. Their payments would be imposed without regard to the other debts they owe. And if the couple failed to make their payments, the IRS would likely try to collect through garnishments and tax liens. Depending how long repayment would take, the couple could easily end up paying $30,000 or more with additional interest and penalties. This would be in addition to their $35,000 medical and credit card debts, which could easily increase to $45,000 or more, especially if these other debts went to collections or lawsuits. That’s likely because the couple would be paying all available money to the IRS. So likely the couple would eventually end up paying at least $75,000 to their creditors.  

In a Chapter 13 case, the 2006 and 2007 taxes, interest and penalties would very likely be paid nothing and discharged at the end of the case. So would the penalties for 2008, 2009, and 2010. That takes care of $11,500 of the $25,000 present tax debt. The remaining $13,500 of taxes and interest for 2008, 2009, and 2010 would have to be paid as a “priority” debt, although without any additional interest or penalties once the Chapter 13 case is filed. Adding in some “administrative expenses” (the Chapter 13 trustee and our attorney fees), and assuming that their income qualified them for a three-year Chapter 13 plan, this couple would likely be allowed to pay about $500 per month to ALL of their creditors—credit cards and medical, AND the IRS. Then after three years, they’d be done. The “priority” portion of the IRS debt would have been paid in full, but the older IRS debt and all the penalties would be discharged likely without any payment. So would the credit card and medical debts. After the three years, the couple would have paid a total of around $17,500 (including the “administrative expenses”), instead of about $75,000 without the Chapter 13. They’d be done instead of barely starting to pay their mountain of debt. And they would have not spent the last three years worrying about IRS garnishments and tax liens, lawsuits and harassing phone calls, and the constant lack of money for necessities.

As I said, in my next blog I’ll explain how all this works.

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Four Hoops to Jump Through to Write Off Income Taxes in Bankruptcy

The conditions you have to meet to write off an income tax debt actually make sense. And understanding those conditions is a lot easier if you understand the sense behind them.

In my last blog I introduced the four conditions for discharging taxes in a Chapter 7 “straight bankruptcy,” and said I’d explain them in this blog today.

This is made easier by the fact that there is a single principle behind all four of these conditions: bankruptcy law believes that taxpayers who pretty much follow the tax laws should be able to write off their tax debts just like the rest of their other debts, after first giving the IRS (or other tax authority) a sensible amount of time to collect the taxes.

How long is this sensible amount of time? How much of an opportunity do the tax authorities have to collect before you can discharge the tax debt? Each of the four conditions measures this amount of time differently, based on 1) when the tax return for the particular income tax was due, 2) when the tax return was actually filed, 3) when the tax was “assessed,” and 4) whether the tax return that was filed was honest and therefore reflected the right amount of tax debt when it was filed. You must meet all four of these conditions, all four of these measures of time.

Taking them one at a time:

1) Three years since tax return due: Every income tax debt has a fixed point in time when its return had to be filed. That date is extended by a certain number of months if you asked for an extension, but it’s still a fixed point in time, one that can be easily ascertained. So this first condition gives the tax authorities three years to collect, three years from a fixed point not affected by your actions (the timing of filing the return) or their actions (audits, legal disputes).

2) Two years since tax return actually filed: In contrast, this is a time period triggered by your own action. Notice above when I stated the overall principle at work here, I said you must “pretty much” follow the tax law. Thus you can file a tax return late and still be able to discharge the debt if at least two years has passed since you filed the return.

3) 240 days since assessment: Assessment is the tax authority’s formal determination of your tax liability, usually by its review and acceptance of your tax return. Normally an income tax is assessed within a few weeks that it is received, so the 240 days since assessment usually passes way before the above three-year or two-year time periods. But the law has to account for the less common situations when assessment is delayed. So, when a tax is subject to a lengthy audit or litigation, or an “offer-in-compromise” (a taxpayer’s formal offer to settle), and the three-year and two-year periods have passed, the tax authority still has 240 days after assessment to chase that tax debt.

4) Fraudulent tax returns and tax evasion: This last condition essentially says that none of the above time periods are triggered at all if you are intentionally dishonest on your tax return or try to avoid paying the tax in some other way. If you are cheating on your taxes then the tax authority has no opportunity to collect the debt, so you cannot discharge the debt, no matter how old the tax is.

If your tax debt can jump through these four hoops, you should be able to discharge that tax in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

But what if you owe taxes which do not meet these four conditions? What if some of your taxes do but others do not? Or what if the IRS has recorded a tax lien? Or if a lot of the taxes came from operating a business, or are not income taxes but some other kind? I’ll tell you about these situations in my next blogs.

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Writing Off Income Taxes with a “Straight Bankruptcy”

You don’t always need to file a Chapter 13 case—with its 3-to-5-year payment plan–to deal with income tax debts. Thinking that you do is a myth, alongside the broader myth that “you can’t write off taxes in a bankruptcy.” Both have a kernel of truth, which is why they persist. It’s true: some taxes cannot be discharged (legally written off) in bankruptcy. But some can. And it’s true: Chapter 13 is often an excellent way to solve tax problems. But that does not necessarily mean it is the best for you. Instead Chapter 7 might be.

Chapter 13 tends to be the better tool if you owe a string of income tax debts including relatively recent ones. Why? Because in this situation Chapter 13 gives you the best of both worlds. First, if you owe recent income taxes which cannot be discharged, you get lots of advantages under Chapter 13, including paying less by avoiding most penalties and interest. That can be a huge savings, especially if you can afford only relatively small payments. Second, if you have older back taxes, these are also wrapped into the Chapter 13 plan, often without you paying any more into your plan, then they are discharged at the end of your case.

But you DON’T NEED the best of both worlds if all or most of your income tax debts are dischargeable. Then Chapter 7, the straightforward “straight” bankruptcy is enough.

So, WHAT ARE the conditions for a specific income tax debt to be discharged in Chapter 7? How are you going to know if Chapter 7 will discharge all or most of your taxes so that it is the right option for you?

Some of the conditions for discharge of taxes are quite straightforward. Some are more complicated. And as you’ll see, some are even purposely vague. So unfortunately it’s not as simple as plugging a particular tax debt into a clear formula to see if it is dischargeable. Determining whether a particular tax debt will be discharged requires the careful judgment of an experienced attorney.

I’ll just list these conditions for discharging income taxes here, and then explain them in my next blog. Don’t be surprised if they sound confusing in this list. It’s true: anything having to do with taxes tends to be complicated!

To discharge an income tax debt in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy case, it must meet these conditions:

1) Three years since tax return due: The applicable tax return must have been due more than three years before you file your Chapter 7 case. And if you requested any extensions for filing the applicable tax returns, you have to add that extra time to this three-year period.

2) Two years since tax return actually filed: Regardless when the tax return was due, you must have filed at least two years before your bankruptcy is filed in court.

3) 240 days since assessment: The taxing authority must have assessed the tax more than 240 days before the bankruptcy filing.

4) Fraudulent tax returns and tax evasion: You cannot have filed a “fraudulent return” or “willfully attempted in any manner to evade or defeat such tax.”

You can see that these are begging for some clarification. For that please come back to read my next blog. Or else call to set up a consultation with me. If you have substantial tax debts, you should definitely get some thorough personal advice. Know your options so you can make an informed choice, about bankruptcy and otherwise.

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Whether or Not You Can File a Chapter 7 Case Changes on Nov. 1–Slightly

It will be just a little bit easier or a little bit harder to qualify to file a Chapter 7 “straight bankruptcy” as of November 1, 2011. Whether it’ll be easier or harder for you depends on the state where you reside and on your family size.

What changes on November 1? The bankruptcy system looks to the U.S. Census to calculate each state’s median income, as applicable to each size of family. Median income is the amount at which half of the state’s families have incomes higher and half have lower. If your income is below your state’s median income for your size of family, then in almost all situations you can file a Chapter 7 case. But if your income is above that median income amount and you still want to file a Chapter 7 case, then you have to fill out a long and rather complicated form about your allowed expenses to determine whether or not filing a Chapter 7 case would be “abusive.” So if you want to file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, it’s a lot easier if you’re below the median.

On November 1, new median income amounts become applicable. Some people were predicting these amounts would be lower because of the faltering economy. But in many states the income figures went up instead of down. For example, among single-person families, 31 of the states’ median incomes went up and only 19 went down. Remember, if the median income goes up, that makes it a little more likely that your income will fall below that median, and you’ll have smoother sailing qualifying for Chapter 7.

So, if your income is close to the applicable median amount, and the median is increasing for your family size in your state on November 1, then you have a better chance at falling under the median if you file on or after that date. But if the applicable median is decreasing, then you have a better chance of falling under the median if you file your bankruptcy before then, by no later than October 31.

I’m about to give you the two lists of median income amounts—the one applicable through October 1, and the other starting November 1. But before you start comparing those annual income amounts to your income, please understand that the meaning of “income” in this context is quite different than conventional meanings of that word. “Income” here is calculated using a six-calendar-month look back period that is doubled and then divided by 12 for an average monthly income. It includes all sources of income from all family members other than social security, not just taxable income.

Because of this and many other sorts of complications, yon truly need to consult with a bankruptcy attorney about whether this November 1 median income changes matter to you, and whether you should try to file before then or instead after. But to get you started, here are the two median income lists: the one to use until October 31, 2011, and the other to use after that.

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Preserve Your Ability to File Bankruptcy at the Time You Want

Sometimes the timing of your bankruptcy filing hardly matters, but other times it’s huge.  The three examples in this blog should convince you that you want to avoid being rushed to file your case because a creditor sued you earlier and is now garnishing your wages. Instead you want to preserve the ability to file bankruptcy at a time that is tactically the best for you.

1. Choosing between Chapter 7 and 13:  Being able to file a Chapter 7 generally requires you to pass the “means test.” This test largely turns on a very special definition of “income.” For many people, their “income” under that definition can change every month, sometime by quite a lot. This means that you may not qualify to file a Chapter 7 case one month but then do so the next month. Being able to delay filing your case means being able to file when you will pass the “means test,” or at least more likely would do so, and therefore not be forced to file a Chapter 13 case. This means usually finishing your case in three or four months instead of three to five years, and almost always saving many thousands of dollars.

2. Discharging—writing off—debts:  Getting certain debts discharged is harder if those debts were incurred within a certain amount of time before the filing of your bankruptcy case. So being able to delay the filing of your bankruptcy case makes it less likely the creditor on one of these debts would challenge your ability to discharge that debt. Or if such a creditor would still raise such a challenge, defeating it would be easier.  The amount at stake is the amount of that debt, plus often the creditor’s costs and attorney fees, and your own attorney’s fees.  Avoid or reduce the risk of continuing to owe that after your bankruptcy is over by avoiding getting creditor judgments against you.

3. Choosing property exemptions:  The possessions you are allowed to keep in a bankruptcy depend on which state’s exemption laws apply to your case. If you moved to your present state of residence within two years before your bankruptcy is filed, you will not be able to use that state’s exemptions but rather your former state’s. Especially if you are getting close to the two-year mark, having flexibility about when to file would allow you to pick whichever state’s exemptions were better for you. Otherwise, you may either lose an asset in a Chapter 7 case, have to pay the trustee to be able to keep it, or else even be compelled to file a Chapter 13 case to keep it.

You may sensibly ask: if you do get sued, what are you supposed to do to avoid getting a judgment against you, so that you’re not later rushed into filling bankruptcy at an unfavorable time?  The answer: see a bankruptcy attorney as soon as you get sued to figure out how to deal with that law suit and with your entire financial circumstances. The earlier you get advice, the more options you will have.

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Stopping the Foreclosure of Your Home Temporarily and Permanently through Bankruptcy

Both Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 can help you save your home. Which one is better for YOU?

You have almost for sure heard that the filing of a bankruptcy stops a foreclosure. You may have also heard that Chapter 13—the repayment version of bankruptcy—can be a good tool for saving your home in the long run. Both of these are true, but are only the beginning of the story. This blog today tells you more about stopping a foreclosure. My next blog will get into longer term solutions.

The “automatic stay” is the part of the federal bankruptcy law which immediately blocks a foreclosure from happening. The very act of filing your bankruptcy case “operates as a stay,” as a court order stopping “any act to… enforce [any lien] against any property of the debtor…  .”

But what if your bankruptcy case is filed and the mortgage lender or its agent can’t be reached in time so that the foreclosure sale still occurs? Or if there’s some miscommunication between the lender and its agent or attorney, with the same result? Or if the lender just goes ahead and forecloses anyway?

As long as your bankruptcy is in fact filed at the bankruptcy court BEFORE the foreclosure event, then that foreclosure is not legally valid, whether it occurred by mistake or intentionally. (This filing “at the bankruptcy court” is usually actually done electronically from my office, with a date and time-stamped record proving when the court filing took place.)

IF a foreclosure happens by mistake after the filing of your bankruptcy, lenders are usually very cooperative in legally undoing the foreclosure and its documentation. If your lender would fail to undo such a foreclosure after becoming aware of your bankruptcy filing, it would be in ongoing violation of the automatic stay, exposing itself to significant financial penalties. That would be rare.

Does it matter whether your bankruptcy case is a Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 one for purposes of the automatic stay?

No, the automatic stay is the same under both Chapters, and would have the same immediate effect.

On the other hand, how long the protection of the automatic stay lasts can definitely depend on which Chapter you file. That’s because even though you get the same automatic stay, the other tools each Chapter gives you for protecting your home are very different. So your mortgage lender may very well react quite differently depending on the Chapter you file, as well as on what you propose to do about your home and your mortgage within that Chapter. I’ll write about those options  in my next blog.

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Creditor Collections NOT Stopped by a Bankruptcy Filing

You can’t count that filing a bankruptcy will instantaneously stop every act against you by every one of your creditors. Or can you?

Isn’t one of the most important benefits of filing bankruptcy the fact that it puts a screeching halt to all collection efforts of your creditors against you and your property? Yes, and in fact in many cases it does exactly that. This benefit of filing bankruptcy is called the “automatic stay,” because at the moment of the filing of your case a legal injunction automatically goes into effect “staying,” or stopping, most actions by creditors against you. But exactly because the automatic stay is something we count on so much, we better know its exceptions.

Today I’m just going to list some of the most important exceptions. Then in the next couple blogs I will explain in practical terms these and other important aspects of the automatic stay.

So creditors CAN do the following in spite of your bankruptcy filing:

1) A district attorney or other governmental authority can begin or continue a criminal case against you, such as an indictment, a criminal trial, or a sentencing hearing. This includes not just felonies and misdemeanors, but also lesser matters like traffic infractions that you might not think of as “criminal.”

2) Your ex-spouse, or about-to-be ex-spouse, or somebody on his or her behalf, can start or continue a variety of divorce and family court proceedings. These include legal procedures to establish paternity of a child, determine or change the amount of child or spousal support to be paid, settle child custody or visitation issues, address domestic violence disputes, and even dissolve the marriage. (Although a marriage dissolution usually cannot include a determination about how assets or debts would be divided between the spouses.)

3) Specifically about child or spousal support, the person owed ongoing support can continue collecting it. If there is back support owed, then in spite of a Chapter 7 filing, the person who is owed the support can in most cases start or continue collecting it. This includes not only collection through wage withholdings and garnishment of bank accounts, but also through seizure of a tax refund and suspension of a driver’s license, an occupational or professional license, or even a hunting or other recreational license. In contrast, a Chapter 13 filing can stop these aggressive methods of collecting back support.

4) Taxing authorities can start or finish a tax audit, can send you a notice that you owe taxes, can demand you to file your tax returns, can assess your taxes and demand you to pay them, and in some situations can even file tax liens against you and your property.

Notice that each of these exceptions involves a special kind of creditor. As I said, the automatic stay stops actions against you by most creditors. But if you are involved in a court proceeding or collection efforts by the criminal or taxing authorities, or by an ex-spouse, be especially aware of these exceptions.

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