Tax Refund directed to accountant

[patches]

Our accountant charged us 900.00 to file our business and personal return. It is filed as sole proprietor at this time.

He just sent us the docs to sign and there is a form we would sign that directs the return to be deposited to him to cover his fee.

We filed on the 15th of September.

Is it ok to sign that so he can get paid?

We are in florida and are represented by an attorney (not pro se)
Thanks for any info on this.

[backtoschool]

Your trustee may want to claim the tax return as an asset of the bankruptcy estate. Paying the accountant directly with the money could be considered a preference and the trustee may go after your accountant for the money.

[drowning123]

Would you believe that I withdrew $1,600 six days before filing to pay my attorney? The trustee didn't ask me anything about my bank accounts. Of course, this is just my experience. I'd say, just don't worry about it. It's not a ridiculous amount of money.

[backtoschool]

Would you believe that I withdrew $1,600 six days before filing to pay my attorney? The trustee didn't ask me anything about my bank accounts. Of course, this is just my experience.

Paying for your bankruptcy is an allowed expense. Paying an accountant can be considered paying one creditor over another. In any case the tax return may be claimed by the trustee so if the OP is going to pay the accountant it should not be with the tax return.

[tobee43]

Paying for your bankruptcy is an allowed expense. Paying an accountant can be considered paying one creditor over another. In any case the tax return may be claimed by the trustee so if the OP is going to pay the accountant it should not be with the tax return.

correct....if you chose to pay the account then HOLD off with the filing. just because you hired and paid the atty does NOT mean the atty needs to file the paperwork....

if it's that important to you i would pay and hold off....if you pay and don't....you are putting yourself in a position that may come back to bite you...so why even go there.

drowning was most fortunate and besides everyone's situation is different drowning may have been over looked because of absolutely no assets etc....whereas you may have a trustee that looks at everything.

[patches]

We had already filed the petition, sorry I didn't indicate that in my op.
I checked with our attorney and he said not to do it. We can pay the accountant our of our
business account. The business is not filing, our shares will be valued as part of our personal bankruptcy estate.
The business was only formed because we lost our job and couldn't find one, it took everything we had to
get it off the ground and it has a debt. The shares should show negative at this time.

It will be a struggle to pay him but we have to find it somewhere.

Thank you so much for your help, the answers given did prompt me to check with our attorney and I am
glad we did.