Surrounded by debt and anxiety, you try to maintain your lifestyle through a healthy use of credit cards. You rely on it to pay your medical bills, your weekly shopping trips to Walmart and major home repairs and restaurant meals. But you know that this house of cards will come tumbling down soon. It is time to take action.
With encouragement and some serious thinking, you file for personal bankruptcy. And with a big sigh of relief, you understand that this decision marks the initial move toward wiping away most of your debt. You want as clean of a financial slate as possible. However, the key phrase is “most of your debt.” You must understand that not all your debt gets discharged. You remain responsible for certain debt.
Non-dischargeable debt includes taxes
When filing for bankruptcy, please do not overlook the fact that not all debt disappears. You have come this far and done extensive research on personal finance and bankruptcy. And that is why you do not want surprises to upset your path toward recovery. A skilled attorney who focuses on bankruptcy is an essential source in learning more.
A list of some of the non-dischargeable debt includes:
- Certain taxes: Most of your tax debt remains. And like other people who fall behind on paying your taxes, you will get some respite. For example, if you cannot pay the taxes, the IRS may temporarily suspend that debt. But it does not go away. Upon completing the bankruptcy, the government aggressively pursues tax collection.
- Alimony: If you are divorced and the agreement called for alimony payments to your former spouse, you remain on the hook for still providing it. However, under the circumstances of bankruptcy, those payments can potentially be temporarily modified.
- Child support: This, too, remains in place. You do not want to be labeled as a “deadbeat” parent. Besides, these are court-ordered payments that provide needed money for your child’s upbringing.
- Student loans: For many years, people understood that student loan debt remained. But the tide is turning a little bit on this. In certain cases, courts discharge student loan debt if it meets undue hardship standards.
It takes some courage to file for personal bankruptcy, but you must understand the details such as what debts are non-dischargeable. Now, you can take the steps you need to avoid falling into a pit of debt again.
