Wildcard Exemption

[tobee43]

Unfortunately there is no carmax in NJ. I think you have to shlep to CT. Might be worth it to make a day trip out of it....

lol!! you are funny keepsmiling...we shlepped to florida and waited out the 24 months to file to get the nice wild card exemption here and it's a lot warmer than ct..

[tobee43]

Of course in NJ, it being like Highway 61, a $100 to Joe the Used Car Guy might be cheaper than gas & tolls to Connecticut. Ok no more Jersey jokes-I kinda miss it. Especially the shore and the food.

i miss pizza...

[nohope]

How about charitable contributions - how much is one allowed to donate on last years taxes (I gave some clothes to Goodwill). Now I've heard there's a max one can contribute.

[daylate]

If you are referring to the tax limitations, it is somewhat complicated-here's a link http://www.irs.gov/publications/p526...link1000229804

But if you just are donating some used clothing it shouldn't be a problem for either taxes or bk

[keepsmiling]

i miss pizza...

Yeah, it's hard to get a decent pizza in FL. It's all about the water. I can ship you some...
btw a local pizza place advertises that they use NY water for all their pies.

[nohope]

I thought there was a limit you could claim as gifts/contributions in the past 12 months on your bk petition. Any amount in excess of that could be a problem?

[daylate]

nohope- I just Googled "charitable deductions bankruptcy"-from what i was reading it appears that if you are claiming charitable deductions as a regular expense on the means test or Schedule J then you have to be able to substantiate it and it has to be a regular habit. Same as in a 13. Apparently back in 2005 a NY judge ruled tht if you were in a 13 you couldn't make charitable contributions until you had paid off all your creditors. In that case the people were tithing 10% and the judge said over 60 months that was another 6k available to pay creditors. Congress didn't like that so they passed a law that said you could. Again if all you are doing is donating some used clothing I don't think it is an issue.

[tobee43]

If you are referring to the tax limitations, it is somewhat complicated-here's a link http://www.irs.gov/publications/p526...link1000229804

But if you just are donating some used clothing it shouldn't be a problem for either taxes or bk

you have to sit down for this one......the year we filed we claimed over 20k in tax deductions...and the coolest part was we donated everything to the state of new jersey....so the state gave us a receipt that we attached to our petition.

we had to leave some rare horticulture items and felt the state gardens could use them as a donation, because certainly the new owners would have not a clue that the tree they were looking at one of only two in the world from china. of course we couldn't take those precious items with us...so i asked the state, since i knew their budget was really down in that area for the parks... and what was so awesome for us is they came with trucks and back hoes and equipment and worked for over 2 weeks and got all the rare plants out....and gave us a whopping receipt. and dedicated a lovely section of one of the main state parks to us. so cool..because i didn't care about giving up the house at all...but our grounds were open to the public for 2 weeks a year for touring our lovely gardens....now i prefer concrete...LOL!!!

[tobee43]

I thought there was a limit you could claim as gifts/contributions in the past 12 months on your bk petition. Any amount in excess of that could be a problem?

we have always believed in tithing a min of 10% of our income, no matter what, during our entire over 40 years together. so i think it depends if you normally contribute yearly..ie. under 500.00 and then all of a sudden you claim $4000 the year you file it could look funny...however, many people, like us, could not bring everything with us. so not only did we donate more that year, but we made certain it was to the most legitimate places possible. like i mentioned about our trees and plants, much of the furniture and other items went to local country projects to families in need...of course i was also in need at the time, since for a while there we were actually homeless but still had a nice tax deduction. wow, what an situation that was for us.

[nohope]

tobee43 - What amount of charitable contributions did you claim on your taxes and what comments did the trustee have regarding them? Are you saying you gave a charitable contribution of $20K to the state of NJ? Wonder what the reaction would have been if you donated $20K to some other organization.
Daylate - I am not claiming charitable contributions as an expense - my question is regarding what I contributed in the past 12 months.

[tobee43]

tobee43 - What amount of charitable contributions did you claim on your taxes and what comments did the trustee have regarding them? Are you saying you gave a charitable contribution of $20K to the state of NJ? Wonder what the reaction would have been if you donated $20K to some other organization.
Daylate - I am not claiming charitable contributions as an expense - my question is regarding what I contributed in the past 12 months.

i had a reciept attached to the bk petition for the trustee....there were no questions at all from the trustee's office on the contributions. and yes, i'm saying we gave a 20k contribution to the State of New Jersey....another 10k to the country we lived in and claimed it all on our taxes, however, also listed those contributions on the petition since, unfortunately, i don't have the copy of my petition right this sec, the question which was applicable to the exact question pertaining to ...i.e. if you gave blah blah over such and such please attach proof...etc.