Wasson & Thornhill - The recently expired deadline allowing pandemic relief payments from being excluded from the means test was extended to March 27, 2022. Way back at the beginning of the pandemic the CARES Act made some helpful temporary changes to consumer bankruptcy law. (See our blog post in April 2020 about this.) Those changes had expiration dates which have now passed. However, in the meantime Congress passed two other laws which extended the changes. They are still temporary changes. As time passes, these consumer bankruptcy law changes and their new expiration dates continue to ..read more

Wasson & Thornhill - Photo by Bermix Studio on Unsplash. You could pay your medical bills through many forms of borrowing—from putting them on a credit card to a home equity loan. What makes sense? About one-fourth (26%) of American adults (18-64 years old) reported that they or someone in their household had problems paying medical bills during the previous year. This is according to a 2016 survey by the highly reputable Kaiser Family Foundation, The Burden of Medical Debt. Not surprisingly, more than half of people who did not have health insurance reported such problems. However, more t ..read more

Wasson & Thornhill - Photo by pina messina on Unsplash. Two major recent developments with the Affordable Care Act: a Special Enrollment Period is open until August 15, and coverage costs less. Our last several weeks of blog posts have been about health insurance and medical bills. Two weeks ago we got into the topic of health insurance and bankruptcy. Last week was a Q&A about medical bankruptcy. Today we provide urgent information about the current extended Special Enrollment Period for getting insurance under the Affordable Care Act. Two Key Changes about the Affordable Care Act In ..read more

Wasson & Thornhill - Photo by Martha Dominguez de Gouveia on Unsplash. There is no such thing, legally speaking, as a medical bankruptcy. However, the majority of personal bankruptcies have a medical cause. The last two weeks we’ve written about health insurance. Two weeks ago we discussed the 6 months of free health insurance provided by the recent American Rescue Plan Act.  Last week we got into the broader topic of health insurance and bankruptcy. Today we broaden it out even more with a Q&A about medical bankruptcy. What is Medical Bankruptcy, Legally? Although the phrase is t ..read more

Wasson & Thornhill - Photo by Owen Beard on Unsplash. Health insurance is extremely important, for lots of reasons. Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 can both help you get and keep your health insurance. Last week we discussed the 6 months of free health insurance provided by the recent American Rescue Plan Act.  It may apply to you if you lost your job and your health insurance with it. If this applies to you please check out that blog post. Today’s blog post gets into the broader topic of health insurance and bankruptcy. There’s lots of evidence “that medical bills are the single largest cau ..read more

Wasson & Thornhill - Have you lost a job, and with it your employer-based health insurance? You can get 6 months of that insurance for free starting April 1. Last month’s American Rescue Plan Act included the $1,400 stimulus payments, expanded unemployment insurance, and many other benefits. One other less well-known benefit pays your health insurance if you’ve lost your job and your health insurance with it. Today’s blog post talks about this new free health insurance. What is This Health Insurance Benefit? This benefit could potentially pay your and your family’s entire health insurance ..read more

Wasson & Thornhill - Photo by Donovan Reeves on Unsplash. What if you already owe a prior year (or more) of income tax, regardless whether you expect to owe for 2020? What should you do and not do? What if you owe 2020 income taxes even though the IRS is not taxing $10,200 of unemployment income that year? That was our topic last week. The first $10,200 of unemployment is not being taxed because of last month’s American Rescue Plan Act. This week’s topic covers your options if you owe income taxes for prior tax years. Even if you don’t owe for 2020, or owe less, that may not help much if y ..read more

Wasson & Thornhill - Photo by Travis Essinger on Unsplash. What if you owe 2020 income taxes even though the IRS is not taxing $10,200 of unemployment income? What should you do and not do? Last week we discussed the extent to which unemployment income is not taxed because of the American Rescue Plan Act. Generally, you don’t pay federal (and possibly state) income tax on the first $10,200 in benefits you received in 2020. Section 9042(a) of the Act. (See our last blog post about qualifying for this, and other details.) Let’s get into two significant practical problems you may still have i ..read more

Wasson & Thornhill - Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash. Did you receive unemployment benefits in 2020? 1 in 4 Americans did. Under the American Rescue Plan you don’t pay tax on the first $10,200. Unemployment Benefits Are Generally Taxable As the IRS states plainly, “[i]f you received unemployment compensation during the year, you must include it in gross income.” Unemployment Compensation, IRS Topic No. 418. Furthermore, “unemployment compensation” explicitly includes not just the usual “state unemployment insurance benefits.” It also includes “Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation ..read more

Wasson & Thornhill - Photo by Jp Valery on Unsplash. It’s all too easy to think you’re doing the right and smart thing to pay your stimulus payment to creditors. Here are examples when it’s not. Before You Make Decisions That Hurt You Last week we introduced the radical idea that the best use of your upcoming or already received $1,400 stimulus payment might be to pay for a bankruptcy case. We focused then on how to figure out when you should throw in the towel and decide to file bankruptcy. One clue is if you find yourself making questionable decisions. That can tell you that you’re start ..read more