Here is a list of settlement %'s from various CC

[Goodgrief]

Ya, no doubt great work. Thanks a Lot!!

[tinfoilhat]

Sorry, I still don't get it, I think I misunderstood the original question(no offense). We were talking about my lawyer, when you asked " Can you walk into the office and pay in cash". So again are you asking "Can you walk into the creditors office and pay in cash or Can you walk into the lawyers and pay in cash.

I think you mean the former(creditors). If so, I am not sure, as the collections department is probably set up differently than regular business operations. They usually specify a spefic address to send you money to. Some places might allow you to walk in. I hope this helps.

I read this forum and get very depressed, my situation has me depressed.

I asked if you could walk into a CC's office and hand them the settlement payment, I know you can't, it was an attempt at humor.

That obviously gets ruined when you have to explain it twice.
Sorry for trying. I'll go back to depressed mode, thanks.

[treehugger1]

You should not feel depressed because of debt issues. I know that is easier said than done, but the truth is that as a society we have been programmed to believe our fiscal issues are a reflection of our character. Our fiscal issues are a reflection of society, and are not a reflection of personal character. If I would have realized this 10-15 years ago and told all to "f" off and filed BK, I would have been a better citizen. Instead, I let the lenders set the parameters. Now, I set the parameters.

[Brighterdays]

You should not feel depressed because of debt issues. I know that is easier said than done, but the truth is that as a society we have been programmed to believe our fiscal issues are a reflection of our character. Our fiscal issues are a reflection of society, and are not a reflection of personal character. If I would have realized this 10-15 years ago and told all to "f" off and filed BK, I would have been a better citizen. Instead, I let the lenders set the parameters. Now, I set the parameters.

I agree, You are not alone in this. Just think how many people lost their jobs last month alone (600,000 plus people). That is just 1 month and about 1 in 10 people are unemployed. Now that is not the real unemployment number either as they don't count millions of people. The real number is closer to 18% to 25%. Just think how many people are living(surviving) on credit cards right now(millions). This house of cards is going to come crashing down soon.

With that said, at least you(tinfoilhat) are ahead of the curve. You are getting your house in order now so will be ahead of the game. Just remember "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger" and "You are not alone"

[treehugger1]

Brighterdays, earlier you said you have an inheritance. Why on earth would you use the money to settle debt that is unsecured? Take this money out of the picture and look at your situation without the inheritance. Where would you stand?

Yes, it is hard to stop paying your debts. On the other hand, once you do it and survive a few collection calls, you quickly learn that it's only people bothering you. It's not as if someone has walked into your home and sent you to the panic room. With the exception of phone calls, the world is electronic. You are not not dealing with folks face-to-face. It's nothing but a game.

If I thought I was getting a $30K inheritance, the last thing I would do if I couldn't deal with my debt with my current income, is settle on unsecured debt. I could live for several years on $30K. Take care of your family's needs first. Feed yourself, pay your rent/mortgage, cover you communication costs, medical needs, transportation costs, etc.

[splinter]

I wouldn't worry about a 1099-C, if you only get one of them. Ignore it. The IRS has 2 years to catch the error, if it's an oversight. If they do catch you within 2 years (very unlikely), say this is the first you've heard of it and the creditor never sent one.

[LuciluS]

Could you please post the source of your information? I find it to be not only incorrect but probably illegal advice.

You neglect to mention the fact you are required by law to report to the IRS any amounts you receive over $600 as income, irregardless of the source. Even if it was from a debt you were forgiven during that tax year even if you do did not receive a 1099-C from the creditor you are expected to recognize a capitol gain.

It is not up to the IRS to catch YOUR error (failure to report income or capitol gains) and if they do catch the "error" and it turns out you failed to list this on your taxes, its called fraud. in addition the IRS has THREE years to perform an standard audit of a tax return. If you knowingly failed to list a 1099-C or the income/capitol gain the you have committed fraud and the SOL does not apply when you commit fraud on a tax return. You WILL incur penalties and interest with remote chance that if you were blatantly not filing you can be charged with a criminal act.

SOL for IRS:
The statute of limitations limits the time during which an action can be brought by the IRS for an audit and the time for IRS tax collection activities. Generally, there is a 3-year statute of limitations for the IRS auditing a tax return and a 10-year statute of limitations for the IRS collecting tax.Under section 6501(a) of the Internal Revenue Code (Tax Code) and section 301.6501(a)-1(a) of the Income Tax Regulations (Tax Regulations), the IRS is required to assess tax within 3 years after the tax return was filed with the IRS. Similarly, under 301.6501(a)-1(b) of the Tax Regulations no proceeding in court by the IRS without assessment for the collection of any tax can begin after the expiration of 3 years.

The statute of limitations does not apply in the case of a false tax return or fraudulent tax return filed with the IRS with intent to evade any tax. See section 6501(c)(1) of the Tax Code and section 301.6501(c)-1 of the Tax Regulations.

So please, you are terribly misinformed and giving out potentially illegal advice that could get someone into a lot of trouble or cost them a lot of money.

Yes Sir! I was an Accountant before being deemed disabled due to a Car Wreck. I've worked in the Public and Private Sector.

Worked for a company back in the early 90's who wanted me to 'Pad their Books'. Didn't take me but an hour to pack up my things and walk right out. I could have been arrested. Their doors were closed in less than 2 years after I walked out.

To this day, I wonder what the Officers did with the 401k contributions from their employees as they had no monies in the Company 401k. All loaned out to the stockholders (family owned Corporation). I caught that Fraud in less than 3 hours on my first day on the Job.

Had a friend who was an auditor for the IRS & he told me a 'shady' individual or Corp. will be 'blackballed' by the IRS & audit after audits will be performed until Arrests and/or Corporation is shut down. (not his exact words).

[LuciluS]

Ahhh...not sure what your talking about. My post was addressing splinter who made the claim about not needing to worry about a 1099C.

Just saying Your Statements were Fact! And Don't try to Fraud the IRS!

[splinter]

Sorry you got upset at my post BigBoy. You appear to see things in a theoretical sense and may not understand how things work in the real world. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

May I suggest we use the "ignore user" feature at this board, so there are no further misunderstandings? I've just added you and would appreciate the favor in return.

Many thanks!

[Ifonly]

I think the point BigBoy was trying to make is that the purpose of this forum is to gather reliable, anecdotal advice from people who have "been there". Many of the posters here take their role in guiding us "newbies" thru this painful process very seriously and take pride in giving good advice.

Telling someone to ignore a 1099-C is really crappy advice. And you could land someone who thinks you know what you're talking about into a world of hurt by spewing out thoughtless comments.

I'm a CPA and trust me, I would rather owe 20 CC thousands of dollars than owe the IRS because they are merciless with penalties and interest and they carry a pretty large stick when it comes to garnishment and levies. One of the reasons I'm happy with our CH13 is that it allows me to pay my tax debt.

[treehugger1]

I've never had a problem with the IRS catching my 1099 "c's" or otherwise. Guess I'm unlucky. On the other hand , the IRS has always treated me fairly. Currently, I'm on a payment plan for back taxes and I would have to say we have worked through a big mess in a congenial manner. I know it's true that others have had big run-ins with the IRS, but once I received some mail from them and responded promptly they were more than willing to work something out. I thought about hiring a CPA or a friend of mine who is a CPA, but he told me to simply call them and try to work it out with them as an individual. Best piece of advise I ever received. Generally, when I neeed to contact my "representative" at the IRS, I have to go through a 30-40 minute procedure of "touch-tone" commands, but eventually I get the live person. I have to wonder how many folks simply get frustrated and give up. The one thing I have learned is to NEVER ignore a 1099 of any kind. This is especially true in the modern-day era where information is compiled and transferred quickly. You can ignore a 1099 and a computer system will pick it up and can automatically send you a leter regarding the situation. I'm not sure a real person ever reviews the circumstance. The database and information system can do all of this without any human interface.

What does this have to do with the other posts. Everything! Take any 1099 seriously and be proactive in responding to one. JMHO

[splinter]

You're right, my info may be out of date. It comes from a Ch7 in 1995 and IRS issues in 2001 and 2003. So 14 years since my first bankruptcy and 6 years since my last issue with the IRS. Based on those experiences, they didn't cross check anything at least in my case. But now, who knows? They may even be matching tax returns with BK filings?

I also have an ongoing problem with California trying to collect taxes on a C-Corp that was dissolved in 2006. It was a Nevada corp, so it was a foreign corp in CA. The dissolutionment doesn't require permission by the CA Sec of State. It was a legal entity that was dissolved, so any company liabilities are gone as well. But CA is still pursuing the matter. The back taxes owed are still accumulating, BTW. The company was current at the time I closed it. But because I didn't follow procedure in CA, they claim the company owes the minimum franchise tax of $800 per year. That's what the back tax issue is about. This belies the fact that the corp has been dissolved. CA refuses to accept that there is no entity to assess taxes against or to collect from. They even tried to levy an old bank account I neglected to close. But Nevada B of A refused the levy for insufficient funds. I was lucky they didn't use the overdraft to pay the levy.

So I have mixed feelings about tax authorities... Like in BK, creditors use everything to their advantage. Sometimes they're legal and sometimes they're not. Like CA has no legal cause to pursue me for back taxes for a corp that has been dissolved, yet they do...

[splinter]

Ifonly, I appreciate your profesionalism and constructive remarks. Knowing that you're a CPA and a true professional and would never personally attack someone is reassuring.

To preclude an further issues, I'd request that you add me to your ignore list.

Thanks!

[Brighterdays]

As for the 1099c , you can legally get around it as long as you are insolvent(see below). Most people here should be insolvent.

I agree with most on here who say do ch7 if you can, Unfortunately I can't as some other people cant either. At least not right now. The way I figure it, my goal is to be debt free in 1-2 yrs. Both roads, Debt settlement and banruptcy, follow the same path up until a certain point. So I will start down the road and see where it takes me. At least I know my options now. Trust me I don't favor debt settlement, but I think it might be in our future. We will get through this crap and we will rebuilld. I do want to own another house down the road and have some resemblance of credit so the quicker we get this over with the better, but we do understand that haste makes waste so we are exploring all our options.

Thanks to all the great people on this forum, we now have a clearer vision of how to achieve our goals.

Here is the form from the Irs about insolvency you need to file http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f982.pdf
From the Irs:
Example. You were released from your obligation to pay
your credit card debt in the amount of $5,000. The FMV of
your total assets immediately before the discharge was
$7,000 and your liabilities were $10,000. You were insolvent
to the extent of $3,000 ($10,000 of total liabilities minus
$7,000 of total assets). Check the box on line 1b and include
$3,000 on line 2.
Line 1c
Certain individuals may need to complete only a
few lines on Form 982.....

http://www.creditcards.com/credit-ca...e-tax-3513.php

[splinter]

Good luck to you and I hope everything works out.