I'm going to whine, re: inane trustee letters.

[papie]

I just received a letter today from our trustee. The header states "Notice of Tax Return And/Or Refund Due." In a nutshell it states. "Our records indicate that we have not received one or more of your tax refunds. Please send those in asap, and oh, IF your plan states that you are to turn over tax refunds, send those in too." It looks to be a pretty general, mass generated letter. Letters in the past always contain account specifics and addresses us specifically. This one says "Dear Chapter 13 Filer" and it's not even on the trustee's fancy pants paper.

I've read our confirmation 50 times over, and I see nothing about turning in tax refunds. It does state that we need to submit copies of our returns though. We filed in December of '09 and were confirmed in February of '10. We were in the midst of the filing process when we did our taxes and I remember giving the lawyer a copy of the return for the year '09. I honestly don't think I sent the trustee anything for '10. (I work in finance and the only thing I accomplish during tax season is 16 hour work days.)

I guess I'll send it in Monday.

In the meantime, if they wanted our tax refund, that would be stated in the confirmation letter, correct? I never remember anyone mentioning turning over tax refunds.

It would be really nice if the letter was a little more specific.

[Flamingo]

If you are concerned as to where this information came from (be careful of scams to get information), call your attorney and advise him/her of what you received and what you need to do. Do not respond directly to what you received but go through your attorney.

[lrprn]

I agree with Flamingo. Notify your attorney first and ask him/her to verify that this form letter did indeed come from your trustee. Trustees generally don't send out the same mass letter to a general Ch 13 population like this.

Your bk filing is public information, and the scummy financial scammers are getting more and more clever every day. This just might be an attempt at identity theft. Better to be safe than sorry.