California Chapter 7 Exemptions - Tools of the Trade, Wildcard Exemptions, Firearms
Howdy:
I just posted some questions about Chap 7 BR in the CH7 forum. I figured I'd follow along and post these here....
I don't have a lot of assets the way most people have assets.... I don't have any money anymore, I have been living by selling my personal property and some musical instruments
I would def use the System 2 to optimize exemptions of this type of property.
My car. Well, it is titled to my brother and has been for about 6 months. I owed him some money which I was unable to pay, and he was feeling uncomfortable about it, so I offered to transfer the title of my car to him for security and have been making some cash payments as I can to get it back. Probably didn't think it thru, hopefully I won't have any issues with "asset hiding"? The $5100 exemption pretty much covers it. If you tried to liquidate it you would not be able to get $5100 for it because of a few dents....
Personal Exemptions: Not really sure about these, I only have clothes, a bed, household items, a desk, and a chair. I have a computer, which is probably covered under tools of the trade. I have an old laptop that is worth about $80 on ebay....
Tools of the Trade:
I'm an engineer. I definitely do draw upon my personal hand and power tools for my job, in addition to some books and equipment that are definitely engineering-related. Is it too much of a stretch to consider some of my "contractor" type tools here? I have used them all in my line of work. These days, you have to be ready to wrench as a mech engineer, and I prefer to use my own tools when I'm doing it.
Musical Equipment: now, I've never had a taxable "job" as a musician, but I usually play in 1 or 2 bands at a time, and we do play shows, weddings, parties, bars, etc... In fact, my band mate and I are in the process of finishing two albums of material we've recorded over the years. It will be self-released commercially, might even be available via iTunes. Though I've never made much money, I HAVE made money, and I plan to continue doing this. Consider it a part time job, that I could not do without the instruments and equipment. Will this be a problem?
Wildcard Exemptions:
I was pleased to find that CA has wildcard! One of the reasons I liked michigan's laws was the option to go federal, so that I could utilize the wildcard in lieu of home equity.....
Are there any items that aren't covered under wildcard?
More to the point, I have a firearms collection that isn't very valuable, but it's valuable to me. I don't see the difference between this and coins, but california is california....... Can I use the wildcard to keep my firearms?
Are there any "per item limits" under the wildcard?
Other items I'd exempt there are my old motorcycle (worth under $1000, it's in rough shape) and my music equipment, IF it was not able to be covered under tools of the trade. If there was enough left over I might just cover them here to be safe, I don't know.
Can anyone comment on how these CA exemptions are used?
Regards,
Zeke
I just posted some questions about Chap 7 BR in the CH7 forum. I figured I'd follow along and post these here....
I don't have a lot of assets the way most people have assets.... I don't have any money anymore, I have been living by selling my personal property and some musical instruments
I would def use the System 2 to optimize exemptions of this type of property.
My car. Well, it is titled to my brother and has been for about 6 months. I owed him some money which I was unable to pay, and he was feeling uncomfortable about it, so I offered to transfer the title of my car to him for security and have been making some cash payments as I can to get it back. Probably didn't think it thru, hopefully I won't have any issues with "asset hiding"? The $5100 exemption pretty much covers it. If you tried to liquidate it you would not be able to get $5100 for it because of a few dents....
Personal Exemptions: Not really sure about these, I only have clothes, a bed, household items, a desk, and a chair. I have a computer, which is probably covered under tools of the trade. I have an old laptop that is worth about $80 on ebay....
Tools of the Trade:
I'm an engineer. I definitely do draw upon my personal hand and power tools for my job, in addition to some books and equipment that are definitely engineering-related. Is it too much of a stretch to consider some of my "contractor" type tools here? I have used them all in my line of work. These days, you have to be ready to wrench as a mech engineer, and I prefer to use my own tools when I'm doing it.
Musical Equipment: now, I've never had a taxable "job" as a musician, but I usually play in 1 or 2 bands at a time, and we do play shows, weddings, parties, bars, etc... In fact, my band mate and I are in the process of finishing two albums of material we've recorded over the years. It will be self-released commercially, might even be available via iTunes. Though I've never made much money, I HAVE made money, and I plan to continue doing this. Consider it a part time job, that I could not do without the instruments and equipment. Will this be a problem?
Wildcard Exemptions:
I was pleased to find that CA has wildcard! One of the reasons I liked michigan's laws was the option to go federal, so that I could utilize the wildcard in lieu of home equity.....
Are there any items that aren't covered under wildcard?
More to the point, I have a firearms collection that isn't very valuable, but it's valuable to me. I don't see the difference between this and coins, but california is california....... Can I use the wildcard to keep my firearms?
Are there any "per item limits" under the wildcard?
Other items I'd exempt there are my old motorcycle (worth under $1000, it's in rough shape) and my music equipment, IF it was not able to be covered under tools of the trade. If there was enough left over I might just cover them here to be safe, I don't know.
Can anyone comment on how these CA exemptions are used?
Regards,
Zeke