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What you should know about the new Bankruptcy means test

Saturday Feb 28, 2009

If you feel that you may need to declare bankruptcy in order to solve your debt problems, you may be worried about the recent bankruptcy law. Many have made the assumption that they no longer qualify because of the recent changes in the bankruptcy code.

There are definitely some changes that you need to be aware of, including the so called means test. This can help determine whether you can file chapter seven bankruptcy.

There’s much controversy about whether the new law is bad for consumers. It seems to have come about because of extensive lobbying from the credit industry in recent years, and Congress finally passed this law in 2005.

Essentially, this law tries to make it more difficult for someone to file for bankruptcy, specifically chapter seven bankruptcy where most of your debts are completely wiped out. The new law was passed in 2005, and one of the main provisions was the means test. This test tries to determine whether or not you can actually pay your debts.

First of all, if your salary is pretty low (lower than the average in your state), you don’t even have to worry about this test. It’s obvious that you don’t make much money, and you don’t have to go through any great obstacles to prove.

If your income is higher, however, you’ll have to go through the annoying process of calculating all of your income and expenses. Based on this, the court will determine whether you can afford to pay both your necessary expenses and your consumer debt.

If the court thinks that you make plenty of money and don’t need a chapter 7 bankruptcy, you may be forced to file for chapter 13 instead. Chapter 13 bankruptcy, by the way, gives you a payment plan instead of simply wiping out your debt.

You should know that most people who would have qualified previously will still be eligible under this new law. However, the process has become more difficult, so you should have legal assistance by your side at all times. Good legal advice will probably pay for itself if you’re able to successfully file for bankruptcy

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Teaching Yourself to Plan your Spending

Saturday Feb 28, 2009

With more marketing hypes now then ever, we are more indulged into heavy consumerism. With this phenomenon, more people are tempted to acquire debts beyond their capacity to pay. Debt is simply responsibility and we are getting more irresponsible.

Debt mismanagement is becoming a common household concern. Management of our finances and financial literacy has certainly become a very big dilemma. With growing debts and the looming financial misfortunes in the near future, one must consider debt relief if needed.

With today’s great demand for debt relief, there are already many options to help us with our financial troubles. But educating oneself is still the best defense and the key to our survival in this financial crunch.

Educating yourself is definitely your first base in helping yourself. It all starts with realization.

Realization is stopping the use of your credit cards for your shopping impulses. Whatever situation you will enter, you need stringent self imposition of stopping yourself from wild shopping sprees.

Your situation right now demands that you give up your credit cards temporarily or if without reform, then permanently. Have some restraint with yourself and make this move a main priority. And work your butt off to persistently continue until you get out of this financial situation. To regain control over your finances is like taming a beast and finally achieving freedom when reaching your goal.

If you can’t handle this yourself, go get a guide with professional help. In many cases, most experts design a plan for some of their clients. This plan will have some methods for retention with the original plan. This works out best to let you stick with the spending plan to get their debt under control.

A spending plan is a simple guide with your income and your expenses and everything in between. This plan illustrates in detail how much money you have and how much money you spend at a time frame with priorities. Sticking to a realistic spending plan allows one to be motivated and be guided to a certain goal. And that goal is to pay off your debts. Much better if you can save for the proverbial rainy day.

Educating yourself is one thing and creating and sticking with the plan is another. This is just how simple debt relief can become. Learn from your mistakes and be smart with money. After all, money will only stick when you have a plan for it. So observe, learn, and keep your money.

For more information on financial directory, get FREE Articles Tips at DollarGuides.com. Get debt-free today with tips on how to get rid of debt here. Start improving your personal finance today.

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How to Set up a Business Entity to Obtain Corporate Credit

Friday Feb 27, 2009

This is a good question if you are starting up a new business venture. You have probably already decided on your business product, but you still have an more important issue to decide. You need to know what type of business entity structure will be the most beneficial and easy for your company. Have you heard of Limited Liability Company, C-Corporation, or S-Corporation? If your answer is yes, but you dont really understand the difference, then read the rest of this article.

You can use a number of business structures when creating your company. Each one comes with different benefits and liabilities. Here’s an overview:

Sole Proprietorship. This is best known as the one-man show where the individual person running the company keeps the profits and absorbs the losses. Unfortunately, the person also carries all the responsibility and liability. This is definitely the least desirable due to the huge personal risk thats involved for the individual. Partnership. In this structure, at least two or more people are the owners of the business. They put similar amounts of money and/or time into the business and they choose who is responsible for running it. They also incur the credit debt for the business and can be held personally liable - if sued. Limited Partnership. In a limited partnership there are, again, at least two partners involved, but they dont always have the same level of involvement, responsibility, or authority. One (or more) of the partners make the decisions and the others remain silent partners. The amount of monetary contribution per partner also differs. Limited Liability Company (LLC). This generally proves to be the most flexible business structure and definitely one of the easiest to set up in the beginning. Its a very good entity for small or large businesses because it helps provide personal asset protection. It also offers a format that makes it easy to distribute profits and losses among the owners. With this type of entity structure, the liabilities of the company are not taken from the personal assets of the individuals, but rather taken from the business assets of the LLC. C-Corporation. There are two ways to file your business as a corporation ” either as a C-Corporation or as an S-Corporation. The C-Corp is the most stringent and structured form. The business profits are taxed twice ” once at the corporate level and once at the stockholder level. With this type, you can have unlimited stockholders to own the company. The C-Corp is taxed as a separate entity, unlike the other form know as an S-Corp. S-Corp. This too is corporation. However, it has a limit in the number stockholders that can own the business ” a max of 75. A plus for this business type is that the profits arent double taxed like they are in the C-Corp structure. This is known as a flow through entity ” which means the profits or losses flow through to the personal, individual tax returns.

Financial institutions generally view the LLC and corporation structures as higher rated business entities. By choosing one of these structures for your business, you are presenting a more professional image to the financial institutions and they are more likely to offer business credit and trade credit to the business.

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Strong theme by partnerstvo & partnership & aerography.