I love rain and alcohol! asked:


This was my principle residents for three years. The original loan was for 84,000. I refinanced and it came up to 94,000. I refinanced again and it came up to 102,000. I know probably it might cover only the original loan of 84,000. Will the relief act not the bailout help me? How much phantom tax would I have to pay on the remaining 18,000? Thanks for your answers!

Website content

Ken Black asked:


When debts begin to pile up around you and you cannot make your regular monthly repayments on time or even at all, you may be faced with a very stressful situation. To make things worse, you will be denied credit from other lenders because you are unable to pay the credit you already have. If that is not bad enough, you will also have rude, irate and threatening letters and phone calls from your creditors, demanding that you pay them what is owed.

As these problems escalate, so do your bills. The problem with many consumer debts or unsecured credit is the interest rates are so high that, even if you are keeping up with your minimal monthly payments, chances are that you will never pay off your debts anyway. If the interest was not bad enough, once you begin to fall behind in your repayments or you borrow above the limit on your credit cards, you are likely to end up paying a whole host of other additional fees, such as late payment and over the limit penalties.

When faced with these situations, you need debt relief or ways to get your debt under control to place yourself in a position where you are able to get rid of your debts once and for all. Before exploring debt relief options, keep in mind that it did not take you a matter of days or weeks to get into debt, so you could hardly expect that debt relief will work for you in a matter of days or weeks either. Any option that you use to get out of debt will take time, patients and careful planning of your finances to make it effective.

What To Do First:

There are many different ways to get debt relief. Before you begin, you will need to sit down and make a list of all of your debts, then make a note of each creditor, their name, telephone and what their interest rates are. You will also need to work out your incoming money and where that money goes each week. Set yourself up with a budget and stick to it, while you are looking for options that will suit your circumstances better and help you get some debt relief.

See which of your debts are attracting the highest interest rates and target them. They are the biggest strain on you, so the sooner that you pay them off, the closer you will be to getting some debt relief. Pay the minimum on all of your other debts, except for the debt at the top of your list and pay as much on that one as you possibly can.

Next, you will need to call each of your creditors and explain to them your situation. Be honest with them. Where possible, ask them if you could pay your debt in full for less money or if they would lower your interest rates while you are paying your debts off. Ask your creditors how you can work together to get your debts paid off. You may be surprised at how willing they are to help you repay your debts.

If you do not feel confortable talking to your creditors, or if you are not having much luck with them, you may want to consider using a credit counseling service to help you get some debt relief. A credit councilor will work with you and your creditors to lower the interest you are paying and make your monthly repayments more manageable.

Additionally, a credit counseling service will teach you how to budget. Some credit counseling agencies give their customers the option to pay money to them each month and have their debts paid on time by the credit counseling company.

What Are Your Options?

The most common way that people often think of dealing with way too many bills, is to go bankrupt. By going bankrupt, you are likely to still end up with some of your debts needing to be repaid, as well as severely damaging your credit report, which will hamper your chances of getting credit in the future. Even if you do get credit after a bankruptcy, you will have to pay huge amounts of interest, which will put you back in the same situation you are already in. So even though bankruptcy may seem like an option, use it as your very last alternative and even then use caution.

One of the best ways to get some financial assistance would have to be debt consolidation. Basically, a debt consolidation loan will pay for all of the debts that you already owe and roll them over to one, usually with lower interest rates and lower monthly repayments. There are loans available from lending institutions that do not require you to have collateral. The interest rates will be higher than a secured loan, although they will be much less than the interest rates being paid to other credit companies or on credit cards.

If you currently own your own home, you may also want to consider the possibilities of a home refinance, also referred to as a home equity loan, which can be used for a variety of reasons, including repaying your debts. By refinancing, you may be able to get a lower interest rate on your home, as well as pay off your debts. If you take the refinanced loan out over a longer term, your repayments will be lower each month, giving you instant debt relief.

While debt relief is important to get out of the debt you are already in, it is also important to make sure to educate yourself in how to budget your money carefully and manage it better in the future. You want to avoid getting into a continuous cycle of getting in and out of debt.



Caffeinated Content

chantakg asked:


My mom got a letter from a debt relief program, shes thinking of looking into it but before she did I wanted to know if I could find out if its reputable.

Its National Debt Relief Divison

Caffeinated Content for WordPress

Michael Clark asked:


Living a debt free is a dream we all have. Yet we pile up debt and knock on the doors of debt settlement companies to get debt relief.

Proper debt management is important, whether you have credit card bills piling up, or your gross debt re-payments are going out of your control and you are on the precipice of financial bankruptcy. Our own habit of making bulk purchases on credit cards has given rise to the problem of debt and we find difficult to get debt relief.

Let’s face it - most of us are not experts when it comes to money and finance. And in most cases, debt occurs due to improper management of our financial resources. We make habitual purchases by credit cards and defer the repayments. A few months down the line, we are left with a pile of bills but no cash to settle them. It will be difficult to get debt relief. It may also happen that you are jobless and need to structure or defer you payments to suit your monthly cash flows. Debt reduction also makes sense if you have past loans with a high interest rates. In such cases, debt consolidation plans are the only way to get debt relief and reorganize your finances and save cash. Professional experts offer their valuable services to get debt relief in a short span of time.

Advantages of debt relief solutions

If you want to get rid of debt, then it’s better to take the help of professional debt consolidation experts. They analyze your debt, decide which type of debt reduction program serves your purpose the best and negotiate with your creditors. Their expertise, industry wide experience and contacts in the finance industry helps you in getting the best possible settlement plan. They offer easy methods to get rid of debt.

You will considerably improve your credit rating as well. Once you leave your debt worries to a professional debt reduction company, they will offer you several alternatives to bail you out of crisis and reduce your debt burden.

The debt reduction programs also stops creditor harassment immediately. Transfer all your worries to them and relax. Once enrolled for debt reduction program, 50% of the calls will be reduced within 2 months and 90% of the calls within 4 months. As a debtor, neither will you receive any bills nor will make any direct payments to the creditors. The debt reduction program will directly take control over the creditors. The solutions of increasing debt is now professionalized and are producing effective results without any tension. To get debt relief with guaranteed results, debt reduction programs from professional debt settlement companies are always a better option.

Accrued Benefits

Professional debt relief solutions program also stops creditors from taking legal actions against the debtor. If you are looking for debt settlement, you would be treated favorably because of your intention to repay your debts. And when you make your repayments on time, it helps you in improving your credit rating. A positive credit history goes a long way in getting better finance deals. So availing a professional debt relief solution is synonymous with finding the optimal solution to lower your monthly payments and reduce your debts fast. Once you enroll in a “debt reduction program”, the company will begin negotiations with your creditors and handle all future communications with. Avoid using credit while on the program.

So whatever your debt situation may be, it’s possible to get debt relief and avoid financial disaster. Just knock on the doors of debt settlement experts.

Professional debt reduction solutions not only help you to get rid of debt by restructuring your gross debt for better management, they also help you in getting better repayment terms. They also save you from the hassles of creditor harassment. So get debt relief by availing the expertise of the professional debt management companies.



Caffeinated Content for WordPress

Meg asked:


I am foreclosing on my property. Home is worth about 300K. Mortgage is for 411K on my primary home. With the relief act I will not have to pay all the income taxes will I?

Kansieo.com

Natalie asked:


And is it a bad thing to use one??? I mean I just can’t get my head above water and they sound like they can help, but it makes me nervous, does anyone have any experience in dealing with this sort of thing?

Caffeinated Content for WordPress

Calum MacKenzie asked:


On December 20, President Bush signed a law that is meant to help homeowners who are facing foreclosure or who sell their homes in a short sale. Before this law, the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007, if your bank or lender forgave a portion of your mortgage debt because the value of your home had decreased, the IRS treated the forgiveness as taxable income.

That meant that if your mortgage lender forgave $15,000 in mortgage debt because your house was worth $15,000 less than your remaining mortgage balance, the IRS treated it as earned income. When you filed your taxes, you were required to add that amount to your annual income and pay taxes on it at your regular tax rate. Just when you most needed a break, you ended up owing taxes on $15,000 in phantom income.

Not for the next three years. Under the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act, taxpayers can exclude up to $2 million of forgiven mortgage debt on their principal residence in 2007, 2008 or 2009. If you’re married filing separately, you can exclude up to $1 million in forgiven debt from your income.

What is mortgage forgiveness?

Mortgage forgiveness is a term that has become more familiar in the real estate market over the past couple of years. In essence, anytime that a lender accepts less than the full amount of the debt owed in full payment of a mortgage, the difference between the amount owed and the amount accepted is “forgiven”.

Let’s take a look at Sue and Jim. They took advantage of a great adjustable rate mortgage to buy a home for $350,000 four years ago. The payments were manageable until the adjustable rate did what adjustable rates do - and thanks to the changes in the housing market and the sub-prime lending market, they are now facing foreclosure. To make things even worse, the best offer that they can get on the home for which they paid $350,000 is $275,000. Although they still owe $330,000 on the mortgage, their lender agrees to accept the $275,000 as full payment of the remainder of the mortgage, forgiving $55,000 of the debt.

Under the Old Rules The IRS Gets Their Cut

When a bank or other mortgage lender forgives your loan or any part of it, they send you a 1099C in the amount of the debt forgiven. You are then required to count the amount on the 1099C as taxable income along with your earned income and wages. Sue and Jim from the paragraph above would have got a 1099C from their old lender. When they file their taxes for the year, that $55,000 would be added to their earned income, adding the insult of having to pay taxes on income they never saw. Instead of relief, they’d end up owing the IRS a hefty chunk of change at the next tax term.

The Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act Changes Everything

Well, not exactly everything. If you’re forced into a short sale, you’ll still get a 1009C from your lender, and you’ll still have to file that with your taxes. Now, however, you’re allowed to exclude the forgiven amount up to $2 million ($1 million if you’re married, filing separately) from your taxable income. In other words, while it’s still counted as income, you won’t have to pay taxes on that amount of your income.

Who Qualifies for the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Exclusion?

According to the IRS, you’ll qualify for this tax exclusion whether you mortgage debt is forgiven as part of a refinancing or if it’s forgiven in connection with a foreclosure. In order to qualify for the exclusion, the following conditions must apply:



The debt forgiven must be on a mortgage for your principal residence. The principal residence is qualified based on the amount of time that you lived in it over the past five years.

The mortgage forgiveness must be because of loss of value in your home or because of a forced short sale in connection with a mortgage foreclosure. A forgiveness that is given in return for services performed for the lender is not allowed.

The debt must be forgiven between January 1, 2007 and January 1, 2010.

The debt forgiveness must be on the mortgage used to buy your home.



How to Claim the Debt Relief Exclusion

In order to claim the debt relief exclusion, you’ll need to show the IRS how much of the debt has been forgiven. That will require some calculation on your part, because the IRS wants to see the fair market value of your home as well as the amount of your mortgage that was forgiven. Often, when the lender makes out the 1099C or 1099A, they may just put the value of the loan in the field that’s reserved fair market value of the home. In some cases, the 1099C or 1099A may not include the fair market value at all.

Like your math teacher, the IRS wants to see your work. When you submit your taxes, you’ll need to include documentation of the fair market value of the home as well as your calculations. If the fair market value of your home - the price that it was sold for - is not listed on the 1099C form, you may do best to hire an appraiser to document the fair market value.

The calculations can get complex if you’ve taken out home equity loans or a second mortgage on your home as well as the primary mortgage. In this case, special considerations may apply. For instance, the income exclusion only qualifies for “acquisition indebtedness”- money that’s spent to buy your home, build a new home or that you use to make substantial improvements to your home.

Suppose you bought a house 10 years ago and paid $80,000 for it with a 100% loan. The Florida land boom was very good to you, and five years later your home had increased in value to $200,000. You took advantage of lower interest rates to do a cash-out refinance for $150,000, paid off the remainder of the original mortgage and pocketed $70,000. When time comes to sell, though, you can only get $100,000 for the property and your lender agrees to a short sale because the home has decreased in value, forgiving $50,000 of the loan amount. Can you use the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Exclusion to avoid taxes on the $50,000?

That depends, says the IRS, on what you did with the cash-out part of the loan refinance. If you used the money from the refi to pay college tuition or your daughter’s wedding, then you’ll have to pay taxes on the forgiven amount. If, on the other hand, you used it to make major improvements to your home, then it qualifies for the exclusion - but you’d better be able to prove the expenditures. If you’re audited, you may need to provide your original warranty deed, or your HUD-1 form. You may need to show canceled checks, receipts and invoices to show the cost of improvements you made.

Filing For the Debt Forgiveness Exemption

The new law came at the end of the year, after the tax forms for this year had been printed, so you won’t find anywhere on the tax forms to make the calculations you’ll need to prove you qualify for the exemption. The IRS is suggesting that those who are facing a short sale or foreclosure this year use electronic tax preparation software. The private software companies have worked hard to update their own forms so that you can do all the necessary calculations within the software, then print out the results so that you can attach them to your completed tax return.



Caffeinated Content

Ted Batron asked:


Christian debt relief would be a new term for most of us. We might find it vague but if we know the purpose of such, we will come to understand the deeper meaning of the words.

The concept believes that we cannot be spiritually free if we have a lot of financial obligations. We will find it difficult to give God all the glory if our minds are being stressed with the various money concerns that we have. The solution Christian debt relief offers is simple. Live humbly and within your means, and God will definitely be happy.

The Principles of Christian Debt Relief

There are principles that govern the existence of Christian debt relief as other debt management programs have. In this modern time of ours, it maybe hard to live up with this principles but we must learn to believe.

Here are some of the governing guidelines of the program:

The burden of debt. Once we indulge to the cravings of having to loan money from others, we are bound to burden ourselves with not just the principal amount but the interests of the loaned money. There is no such clean loan, so to speak especially that we are living in the difficult times where every move we make is a money’s worth. As mentioned earlier, we should live simply. Should there be financial costs to a debt, that is, interests and other fees, there is also the so-called spiritual cost.

The path to freedom. The principle of Christian debt relief on this aspect is to help lower interest rates for our obligation. Monthly payments are restructured thereby allowing debts to be settled with simplicity and integrity.

Living the mission. The principle of Christian debt relief is to bring people closer to God. If we are indebted, our minds are blocked with the financial concerns that we have thereby hindering our relationship with God. Our focus is on how to settle our debts and throughout the process of this thinking, we forget to seek spiritual healing.

The Spiritual Cost to Christian Debt Relief

The spiritual cost is a higher cost paid than that of the financial cost. If we are financially bound to pay so many obligations, we are not spiritually free. It is a known fact that financial burden causes strife between husbands and wives, parents and children, friends and business partners.

Try talking to your husband about debts that you have. Most of the time, you will notice that he will be silent. Later on in the course of the issue, he will keep on talking to you about it. He will ask you where you spent the money despite him providing all the needs of the family. This is when you need Christian debt relief.

Living the Biblical Path

Part of the mission of a Christian debt relief program is for us to later on return to living the biblical path. This path has the following steps to follow:

Give tithes to God first before spending money for other purposes.

Engage in charitable works

Try to find ways to resolve obligations in order to have Christian debt relief.

Trusting God is important in order to settle financial commitments. Seek the help of counsels, friends, and relatives. We cannot solve problems on our own.

Resolving obligations through our own means, that is without consulting others or seeking help from them is far from the mission of Christian debt relief. Finding ways to solve things on our own will lead to more problems. Our loved ones will definitely feel betrayed. We have to let others partake in our solutions to get Christian debt relief.



Create a video blog…instantly.

trixwagen asked:


I’ve heard about these guys on the net and on the radio. If you have over $10K in debt, they settle with your creditors for a lower amount. Has anyone tried them? Can it put you in worse financial shape than if you try to pay off your debts on your own?

Caffeinated Content

D asked:


I would like to know if anyone has used Precision or another settlement company and how it went. Please if you’ve used one, answer. As a person who has gotten into too much credit card debt paying for school and moves, etc. I need to do something so that I can be able to pay my bills. I’ve exhausted many options. If this doesn’t work, I feel I may have to declare bankruptcy.

Please do not respond if you have nothing helpful to say.

Caffeinated Content for WordPress