The North Carolina Bankruptcy Information Blog

As we’re all aware, this decade’s Great Recession has dealt, and continues to deal, a significant blow to the budgets of many American families, leaving millions in debt, underwater in their mortgages, and in some cases falling behind on their tax bills, adding to their economic unrest.

So, even though tax day 2012 is weeks away, and the holidays may already have your full attention, it’s worth noting that there are some timely tips you can take between now and Dec. 31 that will make a real difference when it comes time to deal with the IRS next spring. In part one of its two-part report, according to AOL’s DailyFinance, there are four moves that could benefit your bottom line, and keep the tax man at bay, on April 15.…

There’s no way around it: the United States is a nation of givers. Time and time again, studies have shown that approximately 80% of Americans continued to give to religious and/or secular charities despite the recent recession and its resultant job insecurity and high unemployment rates. But despite recent reports of an economic recovery, in recent months many more Americans are foregoing their charitable giving and feeling no shame about it.

In fact, according to a recent article in The Huffington Post,  “The percentage of people who won’t be making charitable donations this year has doubled to 12 percent—up from 6 percent in 2009—according a recent Harris Poll.…

While it is well known that the United States is a nation of givers—with an estimated $227.41 billion sent to charitable organizations in 2009—what might be surprising is what groups are actually giving the most.

According to a recent New York Times article entitled The Charitable Giving Divide, “For decades, surveys have shown that upper-income Americans don’t give away as much of their money as they might and are particularly undistinguished as givers when compared with the poor, who are strikingly generous. A number of other studies have shown that lower-income Americans give proportionally more of their incomes to charity than do upper-income Americans.…

Home foreclosures, job losses, massive consumer debt and health care costs have millions on the edge of financial ruin, struggling every single day even as we’re told by some that the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression is “technically over.”

If you’re affected by any of the above and you’re here, you may be considering bankruptcy. But, as we work towards financial freedom, it’s important to also consider, times are indeed tough for some more than others. And in this economic recession, spurred by downturns in our nation’s financial institutions, the most beloved banks in America are now food banks.…

You might already know about the problems associated with fraudulent transfers. These are claims brought before the bankruptcy court by the trustee or by creditors which allege that you purposefully transferred property to someone with the intention of keeping it out of the hands of your creditors. If it is determined that you transferred the property with the intent to hinder or defraud a creditor, you could seriously jeopardize your bankruptcy, or worse, face some prison time. Hopefully if you’ve heard about fraudulent transfers, you know enough not to attempt them.

To complicate matters, the law will also look upon a transfer that wasn’t “actually” fraudulent as “constructively” fraudulent if you make a transfer, receive something in exchange, but the something you receive is not reasonably equivalent in value to the item you transfer.…

It shouldn’t take more than a few visits to our blog for you to find a slew of posts about how to prepare for your bankruptcy and manage all the relationships along the way, like those with your attorney and bankruptcy trustee.

Like any relationship, the ones that are forged during a bankruptcy should be built on trust. That is, you need to be upfront with everyone and every entity involved, even your creditors, to ensure that in the end you wind up where you need to be. A large part of building that trust has to do with how you handle the disclosure of your assets.…