Tax questions in GA

[stupidspendr]

Ok so I live in GA and have had my case confirmed. My lawyer is extremely difficult to contact and is driving me nuts because of this!!!

Anyway, my questions are these....
So far I have been told I can keep my state refund but have to hand over the federal. Does anyone have any confirmation on this? I just don't feel totally comfortable that this is true, but my parlegal is telling me this.

Also, if I do have to give up all of my federal, does this go toward my total bk payoff? Meaning my payments could end earlier?

I really appreciate any help in this!!

[lrprn]

Ch 13 trustee practices around tax refunds is very inconsistent across the country, so we can't even guess what your trustee expects you to do....sorry

I appreciate your frustration with your lawyer. However, if you call your trustee yourself, most trustees will not speak with you directly because you are legally represented by your lawyer. The trustee just tells you to call your lawyer and have your lawyer call him/her instead, so you'll be back to square one.

How have you been trying to communicate with your lawyer up to now? If you have to, make a face-to-face appointment to get your answer. Or call every single day until you get your answer. If you have your lawyer's email address, email every single day until you get your answer. Sometimes we are just too accepting of non-action - time to start squeaking

[stupidspendr]

Thank you for the advice. The times I have heard back from him it has been after numerous phone calls and emails. It is really ridiculous. I have even made several appointments and he cancels virtually every time. Anyway, I guess the one question that I would think someone might know the answer to is what the trustee does with that tax money or does that depend on your plan too? This is all so confusing. It would be nice if there was a fair set way of doing all of this for everyone....
Thanks!

[AngelinaCatHub]

Ch 13 trustee practices around tax refunds is very inconsistent across the country, so we can't even guess what your trustee expects you to do....sorry

I appreciate your frustration with your lawyer. However, if you call your trustee yourself, most trustees will not speak with you directly because you are legally represented by your lawyer. The trustee just tells you to call your lawyer and have your lawyer call him/her instead, so you'll be back to square one.

How have you been trying to communicate with your lawyer up to now? If you have to, make a face-to-face appointment to get your answer. Or call every single day until you get your answer. If you have your lawyer's email address, email every single day until you get your answer. Sometimes we are just too accepting of non-action - time to start squeaking

You got that right ‘Lprn’. This is such a common frailty of the legal profession. What a shame to them. We pay, they delay. We went to Court to officially fire ours, we were so angered. Guess what, our case was discharged at that time and we didn’t even know it. I believe though it got her attention. ‘Hub

[lrprn]

The times I have heard back from him it has been after numerous phone calls and emails. It is really ridiculous. I have even made several appointments and he cancels virtually every time.

Well, then if I were you, I would try one more time to contact your lawyer. Tell him that if he doesn't answer this one simple question for you within the next two days, you are going to call your trustee yourself and explain in detail why it's necessary to call (he's not responding to your questions and cancelling your appointments). Then do it if he doesn't answer your question.

If you've kept records of your attempts to contact and meeting dates that were cancelled and really want to get his attention, then also share that if you can't get a simple answer to a simple question this time, then you'll be forced to report him for attorney ethics violations to the state. (Failure to communicate with the client despite multiple contacts is considered an ethics violation.)

If he again does not answer your question after putting this clear line in the sand, then I would go ahead and report him to your state organization that handles attorney ethics violations. You can find out who to contact in your state and how to do it here - http://research.lawyers.com/Reportin...iolations.html

[Billssuck]

I was wondering the same thing too! Also, I was wondering if we should change our withholding amounts after confirmation to get more money in our checks vs handing it over to the trustee with the tax refund?

[lrprn]

I was wondering if we should change our withholding amounts after confirmation to get more money in our checks vs handing it over to the trustee with the tax refund?

Yes, you should change your withholdings to limit the amount of money you get back in your refunds every year. It makes no sense to give the money to the government interest-free for a year when you could be using that money yourselves.

Here's a link to the paper version of the 2009 IRS How to Adjust My Tax Withholding calculator - http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p919.pdf . There's an online, interactive version too that starts here - http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p919.pdf

[stupidspendr]

Wow, what great advice and help! Thank you!

[dragon2003]

Ok so I live in GA and have had my case confirmed. My lawyer is extremely difficult to contact and is driving me nuts because of this!!!

Anyway, my questions are these....
So far I have been told I can keep my state refund but have to hand over the federal. Does anyone have any confirmation on this? I just don't feel totally comfortable that this is true, but my parlegal is telling me this.

Also, if I do have to give up all of my federal, does this go toward my total bk payoff? Meaning my payments could end earlier?

I really appreciate any help in this!!

I also live in Georgia and had to give the trustee my Ga return last year which was only $22
This year I had to pay $70..

[becky20]

Before you change your withholdings, double check your paperwork - some trustees will not allow you to change your withholdings. If you do, you have to adjust your withholdings you have more disposable income, which they'll want to go into the plan...