Think debt relief

Chicago’s Department of Finance currently is offering an amnesty program called the Debt Relief Program (Program).  The Program gives individuals and businesses the opportunity to resolve outstanding debt and avoid certain interest and penalties. The Program is outlined in Article IV of the Management Ordinance enacted with the City of Chicago’s (City’s) Fiscal Year 2016 Budget.   It is unrelated to the Chicago Department of Finance’s recent Voluntary Disclosure offer to providers and customers with respect to the Personal Property Lease Transaction Tax, which we covered in a previous blog post.The Program runs from November 15, 2015 to December 31, 2015, and offers amnesty for three types of “debt,” defined as follows:Unregistered Taxpayers or Unregistered Tax Collectors: Includes tax liabilities for tax periods prior to January 1, 2012, for any taxpayer or tax collector that is not currently registered with the City for the tax.Final … [Read more...] about City of Chicago Debt Relief Program – Tax Amnesty Opportunity

Home Daily News Proposed DOE regulation: Defrauded students… Education Law By Stephanie Francis Ward Posted July 27, 2018, 6:05 am CDT zimmytws/Shutterstock.com. The U.S. Department of Education proposed new regulations Wednesday including one that would require student loan-holders hoping to qualify for a “borrowers defense” for repayment adjudication to prove their college knowingly misled them. The proposed regulations would end those from the Obama administration that targeted for-profit colleges, the Washington Post reports. The department’s proposal states, in part, that college students are “adults who can be reasonably expected to make informed decisions about schools” and “who must take personal accountability” for their choices, the Post reports. The new proposal establishes a federal standard for borrowers seeking loan discharge, just the as the regulation in the Obama administration did, Inside Higher Ed reports, but the … [Read more...] about Proposed DOE regulation: Defrauded students seeking debt relief must prove schools misled them

By Joe Bavier PRETORIA (Reuters) – African countries running up debt they won’t be able to pay back, including to China, should not expect to be bailed out by western-sponsored debt relief, the United States’ top Africa diplomat warned. The International Monetary Fund and World Bank began the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative in 1996 to help the world’s poorest countries clear billions of dollars worth of unsustainable debt. But Africa is facing another potential debt crisis today, with around 40 percent of low-income countries in the region now in debt distress or at high risk of it, according to an IMF report released a year ago. “We went through, just in the last 20 years, this big debt forgiveness for a lot of African countries,” said U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Africa for African Affairs Tibor Nagy, referring to the HIPC programme. “Now all of a sudden are we going to go through another cycle of that? … I … [Read more...] about Don’t expect debt relief, United States warns Africa

In these days of financial turmoil, bankruptcy lawyers seeking to advise clients on dealing with burdensome debt can take comfort: The first federal appeals court to rule on a controversial 2005 bankruptcy reform statute has shot down a provision that limits what lawyers may say.In Milavetz v. U.S., a di­vided panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at St. Louis last September invalidated a section of the Bank­ruptcy Abuse Preven­tion and Con­sumer Protection Act that prohibited “debt relief agencies”—which include attorneys—from advising clients to “incur more debt in contemplation” of filing bankruptcy.Judge Lavenski R. Smith called that part of section 526(a)(4) “unconstitutionally overbroad” and a violation of the First Amendment. The pro­vision “prevents attorneys from fulfilling their duty to cli­ents to give them appropriate and beneficial advice,” Smith wrote in his majority … [Read more...] about A Debt-Defying Act

“We are in the soup” exclaimed, federal judge Thomas Griesa, referring to Argentina allegedly defaulting on its sovereign bonds.  And so we are.Argentina defaulted on its sovereign debt for the eighth time in its history. That a developing nation is accused of defaulting on its international debt might not warrant legal headlines, but in this case the “soup” was precipitated by a court order from Judge Griesa, of the Southern District of New York.  Judge Griesa is presiding over litigation brought by Argentina’s “hold-out” bondholders, including hedge funds who refused to restructure their bonds after Argentina’s previous bond default in 2001, and chose instead to pursue judicial relief.The hold-outs’ litigation against Argentina is but the latest prominent example of how Latin American countries and the companies that do business with them can become embroiled in international commercial … [Read more...] about Sovereign Litigation in Latin America: Top Five Issues To Think of When Doing Business With a Latin American Country