Bankruptcy and Income Taxes

[down @ out]

I am coming up on the final few days before my discharge and was interested to see if any of you folks have experiences dealing with the irs. I filed a chapter 7 bankruptcy and it looks like all of my credit card debts and a few other things will be discharged.

Having said that I have a tax bill of about 6000 dollars from several years back that looks like it will survive the bankruptcy. I am wondering if the irs will go nuts and do crazy things after the bankruptcy or will it simply be a matter of setting up a payment plan and going from there. First let me say I am not a bandit just a normal tax paying citizen. Didn`t owe the taxes but that it is another story.

A part of me says go ahead and file an adverserial hearing in bankruptcy court and make the irs present a proof of claim, and go through discovery with might provide me with information that would allow the taxes to be discharged. I am very close to several trip wires that would let me discharge the taxes but not quite there. Given my past dealings with the irs I doubt they really can present a coherent history of my account given what I know. What they have sent me up to now really doesn`t make a lot of sense.

The problem I face is on one hand I want to get the discharge behind me and filing a adverserial motion will drag this out several more months and who knows maybe mess the whole thing up. Guess one really doesn't know what kind of can of worms one might open.

On the other hand bankruptcy court is probably the only place I can get the irs to come clean on my file since they will be forced to produce information on how they determined what I owe and then I will have to opportunity to force them to prove it.

Another thing I filled pro-se and was comfortable with the normal bankruptcy process. I will have to do more homework to work this.

I am quite worried the irs may go crazy and once I come out of bankruptcy levy my wages, etc., and not deal with me decently. If they do that I will lose my job and things would get bad very quickly.

Just a note I filed under the old laws.

Thanks for the help.

[bkfiler]

if the taxes became 'due' and legally owed 3 years or more ago from the bk filing date then they can be discharged.

if you never did oww them then you dont owe them and should take it up as soon as possible.

it doesnt makes sense to think that if you dont owe then that you should pay them. also, if doesnt make sense to not fight becuase you are wrroied about what they think about you doing so.

if you are going to try to discharge them then get started before you get a dsicharge.

[SinkingFast]

I know someone who was taking early retirement due to disability. Social Security thought he hadn't paid in for a period of 3 years about 18 years before he filed for disability. You know they say you only need to keep your records for 7 years??!! Yeah right!! He had to find the employer he'd worked for during that time and asked them if they still had payroll records for those years. Fortunately for him, the company did have the records. The company could prove he had indeed paid Social Security for those years, and how much was paid. He was able to get his disability claim processed but it took much longer than usual.

If I understand correctly, the IRS goofed and thinks you owe them money you don't. If you have iron clad proof you paid and/or don't owe the IRS, then fight. If you don't have the necessary proof, and the taxes in question would be dischargeable due to time, get it included before you discharge. Then that debt is gone for sure and you no longer have to worry about it.

[AMISLANDER]

I owed back taxes from 2001, 2002, 2003 & 2004...I went ahead and paid it all off (had to take a little retirement $$ to do it) but I did not want to be on a payment plan with the IRS...you just don't mess with them...next thing you know, your paycheck is garnished...that happened to some friends of mine...he didn't even get anything in the mail...they just attached to his paycheck...

[bkfiler]

they cant just take your money. they have to paperwork with you back and fourth a bit first. if you dont respond then yeah they will assume their calcs are correct and lien you and attach to your goodies.

once you set up a payment plan with them then they wont do anything to you. and their interest rates are better then anything most people can get. so its better to take their plans.