THE FEAR OF MEANS TEST IN BANKRUPTCY: IT DOES NOT HAVE TO BE DIFFICULT OR DREADED OR COSTLY. YOU COULD GET CHEAP ONLINE MEANS TESTED TO KNOW IF YOU'RE QUALIFIED TO FILE CHAPTER 7 OR CHAPTER 13.
Put simply, the procedure known as "means test" in personal bankruptcy, is generally viewed among bankruptcy lawyers and other professionals as probably the most hated, most odious and tedious undertaking in personal bankruptcy filing. The procedure has been variously described by bankruptcy lawyers and practitioners, in terms such as this: "the most difficult part of filing for bankruptcy."
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One observer, Daniel Sitarz, a bankruptcy professional and author who practices law in Florida, calls it: "perhaps the most complicated form that the federal government has ever devised for use by the general public," adding that "It makes income tax returns look like child's play. It is a very complex form, with very difficult mathematical calculations."
Another attorney, Susanne M. Robicsek, a North Carolina practitioner, put it this way:
"My personal experience with the Means Test has been that it has made bankruptcy more difficult on lower and middle class clients and gives absurd results for many people... Determining how to calculate the income to use in the Means Test as well as what expenses are allowed to be deducted is confusing for even the most experienced bankruptcy lawyers, and I believe it places an unnecessary burden on many innocent debtors. Since the results of the means test can be bizarre, I find this requirement to be ridiculous."
IN FACT, THIS 'TEST' MAY HAVE BEEN DELIBERATELY MADE TO BE DIFFICULT JUST SO YOU'LL BE SCARED AWAY FROM FILING BANKRUPTCY!
In deed, some bankruptcy experts have made the point that the 'means test' form is unnecessarily tedious and complicated, and that it has been made to be so purely by deliberate design. That it is deliberately drafted to be EXACTLY that way by the banking and credit industry lawyers who crafted the new 2005 law that introduced the means testing process into bankruptcy practice, so as to achieve what is said to have been the original primary objective of the industry in getting the new law enacted in 2005. That objective, they say, has been simply this: to frustrate and try to discourage debtors from using the bankruptcy option, especially Chapter 7, in freeing themselves of their debts by making it more difficult, more taxing, and more expensive for the average debtor to afford or to
undertake bankruptcy.
"It was designed [to be as highly complex in order]...to discourage people from using bankruptcy to eliminate their debts," said Daniel Sitarz, the Florida bankruptcy lawyer, author and expert in the field, who has studied the issue.
The primary design and effect of the 2005 Bankruptcy Act, according to another bankruptcy expert, has been "to discourage the use of bankruptcy to eliminate debts,... and to make filing for bankruptcy far more complex and confusing,...[thus, Congress] brought extensive changes to the bankruptcy law, many designed expressly to discourage the use of bankruptcy to eliminate debts."
HOW REALLY DIFFICULT OR FEARED IS THE THAT PROCEDURE FOR DEBTORS?
Actually, a whole lot! So confusing and complicated is this 7-page means test form, that it has been estimated that the number of man-hours required to put the form and the calculations of the form together, the can be compared to that needed to prepare two or three complete bankruptcies under the old bankruptcy laws. However, it should not be treated as being so difficult that a debtor cannot readily become Chapter 7 or 13 qualified.
Basically, the process is a long, 7-page document with about 85 questions that you have to answer and a series of multiple mathematical calculations that you have to perform. Filling out this form and doing the countless number of mathematical calculations it requires, involves having to gather different standardized data and information for various personal expense items that may be allowable to the bankruptcy filer from many, many different government agencies (mostly through their websites on the Internet), and requires you to make a multitude of mathematical calculations by following instructions provided in the form. You will have to obtain various IRS and U.S. Census data (generally obtainable from either your local Bankruptcy court's office, or online from the website of the U.S. Bankruptcy Trustee's office) in completing the form.
Completing this form relies not just on the personal financial information that's under your control, but requires access to complex and multiple data compiled from various agencies, ranging from the IRS to the Census Bureau and the Department of Health and Human Services, and others, to be able to answer them. Consequently, the answers to the questions posed in this form require the virtual brain power of a really smart computer. So much so that for a newbie trying to find out if he qualifies to file bankruptcy, or Chapter 7 or 13, it could take him days, even weeks, of sheer frustration, confusion, drudgery, and waste of previous time!
The Result?
One major result has been the impact on the cost of filing bankruptcy. Since the new bankruptcy law and its introduction of the means testing requirement became a part of the personal bankruptcy process in 2005, many commercial attorneys who do bankruptcy, have often complained that they now operate under many strict additional restrictions and greater paperwork placed on them by the new law regarding their practice, a major part of which new additional paperwork, they say, has been the means test requirement. The charge for bankruptcy work attributed only to the fact of the means test operation alone by bankruptcy lawyers and law firms, has been estimated to be upwards of $250 per debtor just for the means testing work, which fee then gets passed on to the debtor as the overall billing for a client's filing work.
But does this testing really need to be so dreaded or feared? Does it have to be so expensive?
Actually, you can today readily Get Cheap Online Bankruptcy Means Test on the Cheap, Or Real Free Means Test to Determine You're Qualified To File Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 Bankruptcy -. without the hassle or hype, and at the most inexpensive and affordable costs, that you can well afford
For, the fact is that, actually, the degree of the hype and purported "difficulty" and complexity which many have often attributed to the means testing procedure, or the rather inordinate degree of dread, fear and stress with which the topic is treated by some, is in some ways unduly overblown and over exaggerated. To be sure, truly the means test exercise is a time-consuming, immensely confused and confusing operation which could often unnecessarily involve expenditure of many previous man-hours of tedious labor, especially to the untrained hand. But here's the point: it does not have to be! Even with its famous nominal "difficulty" and seeming complexity, doing the means test paperwork - essentially completing the bankruptcy Official Forms 22A & 22B - could easily be made to be a far less intimidating, less tedious, less costly, and less stressful and "difficult" experience for both the preparer of the form as well as the debtor himself for whom it is meant!
Steven Jakubowski. A Chicago lawyer, calls the means test "BAPCPA's barking dog." "It turns out there is more bark than bite to the means test," he adds, in that because of the many modifications that have been made to the means test procedures over the years since its inception, "only a handful of debtors will ever flunk it."
John T Orcutt, a knowledgeable North Carolina bankruptcy attorney, says of it, it is "more of a pain than preventative."
Stephen Elias and his co-authors of a book on bankruptcy filing procedures, says of the means test: "It turns out, however, [that] very few people need to worry about this new test: Contrary to what the supporters of the BAPCPA thought, the vast majority of those who use Chapter 7 have little or no income to spare. As a result, almost every one who wants to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy can still do so."
AND THE REASONS?
There are several reasons why many with real intimate knowledge of the true workings of the bankruptcy system, have a view of the means test procedure as simply nothing more than a "toothless, paper tiger" undeserving of being feared or glorified in any way.
1. First, for the average debtor, chances are you probably are not even subject to the means test, in the first place. This is because, in actuality, unless you fail the so-called "Median Test"- which is the very first part of the Means Test - you probably won't have to do the Means Test at all. Only about 15% of some chapter 7 bankruptcy filers have been estimated to fall under this category.
2. The means test is replete with so many "loopholes" so that any skilled hand experienced in means testing procedures, can almost always get the debtor a "pass" in a means test. Said John T. Orcutt, the knowledgeable North Carolina bankruptcy attorney: "Even if you have what a means test problem, an experienced bankruptcy attorney [or other professionals similarly experienced in simple form completion] may be able to navigate the issues and get you passing with flying colors."
Orcutt gives away some of the tricks of the trade this way: "Where there's a means, there's a way....there are loopholes to the Means Test. For example, you can time your bankruptcy filing so that your average income is as low as possible. So, if you've lost your job,...you [may] delay your filing so that your income for the past six months falls below the 'Median,' and thereby bypassing the Means Test."
THERE'S NEW, BETTER, BUT CHEAP & AFFORDABLE REMEDY
The central point I want to make, is that what it really comes down to, in a nutshell, is that the supposed "difficulty" associated with the means testing procedure, is actually much ado about nothing being sounded mostly by some bankruptcy attorneys. One can today readily Get Cheap Online Means Tested, Or Real Free Means Test, to Become Chapter 7 or 13 Qualified. You can readily calculate bankruptcy mean. With nothing more than just a little training or coaching or some experience in the process, one can almost always readily undertake, successfully, the completion of this form called the "means test," much like the average person who completes his own tax form does nowadays year-after-year, with only some little outside assistance from a tax form preparation assistant without much ado or fanfare! Or much scare or fear, or much expense! - Get Cheap Online Means Tested, Or Real Free Means Test, Become Chapter 7 or 13 Bankruptcy Qualified
The point is that the American debtors and consumers need not be told or be given the impression that they legitimately need to dread and fear means testing. Nor, do they have to be told or given the impression that means testing is or should be a costly undertaking! It ought not to be so, for the facts on the ground do not actually support or bear out that claim.
This writer has made one recent rather comforting discovery. That, fortunately for the American consumers and debtors, you can get cheap online mean tested, or get real free means test to become Chapter 7 or 13 qualified. There are now today a handful of credible real free online bankruptcy test providers available, which are trained and experienced specialists doing only that procedure. They would get debtors who're merely interested in filing bankruptcy and first knowing whether or not they qualify to file for bankruptcy, fully means tested at fairly cheap and affordable prices for the average debtor. Prices which, since they are for preparation of the routine Means Test form, are more in line with charges you'd find from your average tax preparer for preparation of your routine annual tax return forms!
FOR FOLLOW-UP INFORMATION
The good news today is that you can today, without having to endure the traditional hassle, fear mongering, or high expense of doing it, calculate calculate your bankruptcy mean easily, you can get cheap online means tested, or get real free online means test, to determine you're qualified to file chapter 7 or chapter 13 bankruptcy.
To get more information about this subject matter, or about how to get a cheap or real free online means test provider that will provide a high quality means test document but without hassle or hype and at the most inexpensive and affordable costs, please visit this site: http://www.FreeBankruptcyMeansTest.com
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