Posts Tagged ‘obligations’
Bankruptcy records are documents of declaration that an individual or a company no longer earns sufficient income to finance the business and pay other financial obligations. In the United States, bankruptcy is divided into two categories. The first type of bankruptcy is called liquidation. Liquidation means that an individual or a company already has all their assets sold off and therefore, rids itself of its debts. Reorganization, the second kind, is when either the person or the business files for a new plan of action to still address its remaining financial responsibilities. Either way, filing a bankruptcy record gives a signal that a person or an organization is admitting that they can no longer turn losses into profits.
However, business persons who are considering of filing bankruptcy records simply to escape paying debts are in for some major disappointments. These records are actually created under an individual’s name or the business name and will then be made available for access to the general public. This is all because bankruptcy records are considered public records.
Such records may limit business opportunities later and may discourage potential business partners. In our days, most wise business persons check bankruptcy records before doing business with individuals and companies.
So, whether you are the type of entrepreneur who wants to work solo or someone who prefers to work with a partner, it will do you good to check bankruptcy records. You can check bankruptcy records to check if a potential business partner ever had a bad business history. From there, you may decide for yourself if you really want to do business with the person or organization.
From Discomfort to Opportunity
There is nothing pleasant about receiving a collection letter. But there is a powerful credit repair technique, known as debt validation, which can turn your discomfort into opportunity. Like most credit repair techniques debt validation should be done carefully and only in circumstances conducive to success.
Your Rights
Debt validation is the right to challenge a debt and receive written verification of a debt from a debt collector. This right is granted by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), Section 809. The intent of the law is to prevent errors in collection of debt, including billing the wrong person, the wrong amount, or for debt that has previously been paid.
Timing Your Validation
It is important to know that you only have 30 days to exercise the right to validate debt under the FDCPA. Practically speaking, collectors are sensitive to the 30 day time limit and if you ask for validation beyond the time limit it is highly likely that your request will be ignored.
Avoiding Action
Before attempting debt validation you should investigate the statute of limitation (SOL) on the debt and establish the extent of your legal exposure. The SOL is the length of time a collector can force the payment of a debt through the courts. Understanding SOL is helpful for all credit repair efforts, as beyond the SOL, a collector cannot sue you. Or if they do, you will prevail in court by claiming the SOL defense.
State Differences
The statute of limitation varies from state to state as well as by debt type, so you will have to research your specific SOL on the Internet. If the debt was incurred in a state other than that of your current residence, check both state SOL rules, as a collector may apply the one that is most favorable to their cause, i.e. the longer one.
Settlement Opportunities
The importance of knowing your SOL is considerable. Validating a debt that is beyond the SOL is not likely to set in motion unwanted legal activity, such as a lawsuit. Conversely, be aware that some collectors treat debt validation as a trigger for the intensification of collection efforts. Debt validation within the SOL is still a valuable credit repair technique, but you might chose to limit your efforts to debts that you are prepared to settle.
Preparing Your Letter
Once you have researched the SOL and decided to move forward, it is time to prepare your validation letter. Keep your letter as simple as possible. Like other credit repair communications, there is no benefit to sharing your life story. There is also no value, at least in your initial communication, in taking an aggressive stance. Be polite and ask them to validate the debt and provide a bulleted list of specific requests including documentation that the collector owns the debt and an accounting of the amount due.
The Outcome of Validation
Per the FDCPA, if the collector has not reported your debt to the credit bureaus they are not allowed to do so until they provide validation. And if have already reported and are unable to validate the debt they must cease collection efforts and stop reporting.
Following Through
Debt validation is a powerful credit repair tool which, in most cases will produce excellent results. But you should also be aware that legal precedent defining the obligations of the collector is inconsistent. As a result, some collectors will provide only minimal documentation and consider their job done. In addition, as there is no time limit for a collector to respond, you may occasionally need to press the issue.
There has been a lot of interest in mortgage refinancing ever since the housing crisis hit and people are facing foreclosures. Homeowners realize that it’s a way to lessen their monthly obligations while still remaining in their homes. Of course, any time you have avid borrowers, there are going to be scams and dishonest lenders who are looking to make money off of someone else’s misfortunes. It is a good idea to refinance, especially when mortgage rates are so low, but there are a few pitfalls you need to look out for when doing so whether you’re doing a Madison finance or one in Los Angeles, CA.
1.Watch out for prepayment penalties. Although most people think of these as being something they would have to pay if they repaid their loan in a shorter time than the original agreement stipulated, they can be applied to refinance loans, too. Find out in advance if you are going to be subject to any prepayment penalties, and if there are, choose another lender. These penalties can be large.
2.In order to refinance your home, you’re going to need to have a new appraisal done. When the lender learns the results of this appraisal, it may bring about a reassessment of your house. If the value of your home has decreased, you may get a property tax break; however, if the value has increased since the previous assessment was done, you may be faced with a substantial increase in property taxes. In that case, will your refinance really do you any good?
3.Although adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) often have lower interest rates which make them attractive to those wishing to refinance, you need to find out if the lower rate is only a gimmick to get your business. Some of these ARMs entice customers with low interest for a short period of time, and then interest rates go back to higher than they were originally.
4.A refinance will cost you both fees and closing costs, just like your original mortgage did. Take a close look at the amount you will end up paying. It may cost you more to refinance than the decrease in interest rate is worth.
5.When lenders talk up the positive points about any given type of loan, there are usually hidden negatives that they aren’t going to discuss with you. Don’t let yourself get trapped in a situation like this. Spend time researching anything a lender tells you that seems too good to be true.
6.One type of refinancing that has become increasingly popular for older Americans is a reverse mortgage. This is one of the most expensive types of loans you can get, and there are a lot of hidden dangers that aren’t spelled out in the contract you sign. For example, when you make a monthly mortgage payment, taxes, insurance, and other things are taken from it before money is put into paying the principle of your loan. With a reverse mortgage, even though your contract says you’ll receive $x per month, it will actually be this amount minus the payments for taxes, insurance, and anything else you were paying.
7.Some banks advertise programs for refinancing loans for homeowners who are struggling to keep up with mortgage payments, but when you get into the process, you’ll find it’s not that easy. For some reason, huge lenders are unorganized and tell the government they’re doing one thing when they actually doing something else. One of the pitfalls here is that during the many months it will take to get a refinance approved or declined, homeowners pay lower payments just as if the new financing had been approved. Therefore, if it’s finally declined, the homeowner is left owing the balance of all the mortgage payments that were paid at the new rate which can add up to thousands of dollars.
There are a few things in life that often we dread doing such as summiting our tax return tax refunds. It is of utmost importance to pay taxes. In fact, there are advertisements on television and other media forms which reminds us of our tax obligations. Tax serves various purposes, mainly the four ‘Rs’.
Revenue is one of the main purposes served for by taxes. It is the income gathered by the government from the taxpayers. Taxation makes it possible for the government to raise funding for their public projects including repair of roads, building of hospitals and construction of schools. This collected revenue from taxes also pays for government functions like the judiciary and executive system regulations.
The net income of the government is actually computed by decreasing the amount of expenses from the total revenue collected. Revenue or turnover includes the proceeds coming from income taxes paid for by companies and individuals, sales of services and goods, custom duties, dividends and interests. The approximate income is dependent on the rules laid down by the government and its agencies and based on certain accountancy practices.
Redistribution is the second effect or purpose of taxation. It means allocating or transferring money from the rich sectors of the society to the less endowed members of the same society. In economics, the definition of redistribution is almost similar, income, wealth and property are redistributed to many individuals and citizens of the nation.
The aim of redistribution is to achieve equality in economics. It also aims to create a uniform income among individuals and how much they are supposed to earn. Above all, redistribution also functions as a means to correct and solve the inability of the market economy to compensate an individual worker with a sufficient salary according to the amount of work they put in. In actuality it is no duty of the rich people to actually transfer their money to the poor, it is a rule of morality alone, so the government instead redistributes the wealth collected from taxes to the poor people.
Repricing is the third purpose of taxation. Taxes aims to address the external consequences of the production. To illustrate, tobacco has a higher amount of tax compared to other goods in order to discourage consumers from excessive smoking. We all know the bad effects of smoking to our bodies and health. Taxes and subsidies effectively alter the pricing of goods, thereby changing the rate and quantity of consumed amount of goods.
Goods, when imposed with taxes and considering that any of the variables remain constant, in effect increases the market price or the price paid by the end users. However, the prices which the sellers pay for the goods the merchandise are decreased. The marginal tax is on the other hand imposed on the consumption of goods.
Representation is the fourth purpose of taxes. This simply means that the tax payers ought to be provided with the proper representation of the taxes they pay to the government and should seek their tax agents if there are any queries. The governments owes the public tax payers an accountability. Direct taxation is more likely to account for good governance whereas indirect taxation may have less substantial effects.