The cloud seems to be all anyone wants to talk about these days in the tech field. I presented on it at the annual meeting in San Francisco this past summer and I presented on it at the first annual Region 9 I.T. Conference last month. I’m not tired of talking about it because the cloud is the future for...

Millions of taxpayers filed a 2018 tax return in the last few weeks, making now a prime time for everyone to consider whether their tax situation came out as they expected. If it didn’t, they can use their recently finished 2018 return and the IRS Withholding Calculator to do a Paycheck Checkup and adjust their withholding. Checking and then adjusting...

By The Honorable William Houston Brown (Retired) Plan did not properly address 910 creditor’s liens. Finding that the plan did not satisfy one of the three options for addressing a secured claim under § 1325(a)(5), specifically failing to provide for the 910 creditor’s retention of lien, the Panel observed that in response to the creditor’s objection to confirmation, the debtors...

By Henry E. Hildebrand, III, Chapter 13 Standing Trustee for the Middle District of Tennessee When the wages of an insolvent spouse are deposited into the couple’s entireties account, both spouses are fraudulent transferees; wage deposits spent on non-necessary expenditures are recoverable from the joint account by determining the proportion to the overall share of wages in the account as...

By Henry E. Hildebrand, III, Chapter 13 Standing Trustee (Nashville, TN) Are private educational student loans automatically excepted from discharge by § 523(a)(8). (Jacobs) Homaidan v. Sallie Mae, Inc., Navient Solutions, LLC, 2021 WL 2964217 (2nd Cir. July 15, 2021) Case Summary Hilal Homaidan received a number of educational loans to attend College. Shortly after graduation, he filed a Chapter...

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has released an updated Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) Minimum Wage Poster that covers employers’ new lactation accommodation obligations under the recently passed Providing Urgent Maternal Protections for Nursing Mothers (PUMP) Act.   The PUMP Act went into effect on December 29, 2022 and requires employers to provide nursing employees with reasonable accommodations, such as...

Summertime activities often affect the tax returns people file the following year. Here are some things taxpayers do during the summer along with tips they should consider now: Getting married. Newlyweds should report any name change to the Social Security Administration. They should also report an address change to the United States Postal Service, their employers, and the IRS. This...

(Used with expressed permission from the MI Bankruptcy Journal and the Steven W. Rhodes Consumer Bankruptcy Conference)By Brittani Bushman, Judicial Law Clerk to the Hon. John T. Gregg, United States Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Michigan B. Illustrative Decisions (Minority Approach) The Bankruptcy Appellate Panel for the Ninth Circuit recently issued a comprehensive unpublished decision adopting the minority...

When a debtor fails to disclose a post-petition asset as required by Local Rule and the terms of her plan, the trustee may seek a modification of the plan notwithstanding the expiration of the applicable commitment period; the best interest of creditors test applies only at commencement of the case and not to a plan modification; a trustee’s motion to...

By Nancy B. Rapoport, Garman Turner Gordon Professor of Law, Boyd School of Law, and Affiliate Professor of Business Law & Ethics, Lee Business School, William S. Boyd School of Law, University of Nevada, Las Vegas Dear Readers: My guardian angel, Regina Logsdon has asked a great question:what should you do when your “Spidey sense” tells you that your client...