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If you have been considering filing for bankruptcy, you’ve probably heard about the “means test,” a requirement for filing Chapter 7 Bankruptcy in US courts.

Bankruptcy, by definition, depends on not having enough money to pay off one’s debts, let alone money to save or spend. Therefore it is a function of total net income, disposable income, and discretionary income, such that the total of one’s bills is greater than their disposable income, the amount that they receive in paychecks after tax withholding. If the remaining amount, the discretionary income, is zero or negative then you are, in fact, bankrupt.

The means test, specified by the Bankruptcy Protection Act of 2005, is an added eligibility requirement to file for bankruptcy, introduced by the Bush administration to make it more difficult for higher-income households to declare bankruptcy and have their debts discharged. Previously, the only requirement was to have negative discretionary income, i.e., more bills than earnings, especially when these bills are related to servicing debts such as mortgage and credit cards. Read more…

As most of us know, there have been drastic changes to the income tax system taking effect this year, thanks to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, otherwise known as the Republican tax reform.

This is the first in a series of special articles to guide you through the most important changes, and show you where you may be able to maximize your refund or save money on your tax payments this year.

Did you know that the federal tax code is 6600 pages long? Or that there is another 70,000 pages and growing of case law around it, interpreting, expanding and attempting to clarify these rules? And despite being an attempt to simplify tax law, this year’s legislation is likely to lengthen the code even further, rather than making it less, well, taxing. Read more…

As tax time approaches, there are even more questions than usual this year. With the sweeping changes in tax law that passed in December, what used to be deductible might not be anymore, and what used to be taxed might be taxed differently, or not at all, now.

The scariest change for millennials, the removal of the deductions for tuition, student loan interest, and grad student tuition waivers, was removed from the House bill at the last minute, sparing college students from the worst of the tax reform.

But what else does the new tax code have in store, and how will it affect you? Read more…

Like it or not, the gig economy is here to stay, especially for younger workers and job searchers. While, according to a study from Intuit, 34 percent of workers under 30 are working temporary and/or independent contractor jobs at any given time, and statistics from the BLS show about another 10 percent are permanently freelancers or self employed, nearly 80% of millennials have participated in the gig economy at least once, whether as Uber drivers, contract bloggers and writers, social media marketers, participants in brand-new unstable startups, or at more traditional employment agencies. That’s not to say all of them want to stay there… only 1 out of 11 don’t want to eventually work a standard full time job. Read more…