Bank finance articles and tips

What is a VAT investigation?

A VAT investigation is a detailed enquiry into a business suspected of deliberately evading VAT and is conducted by specialist VAT officers employed by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), the government department responsible for the collection of taxes.

If you're like most people, the last thing you want to deal with is credit harassment. Debt collection efforts by collection agencies have hit an all-time high for two reasons. First, many people are struggling to pay their bills since the downturn in the economy, and next, bill collection has become big business. In fact, collection companies in the U.S. now collect billions in overdue debt every year.

But those debt collection efforts can quickly become credit harassment if you're not careful. Here are five tips that will help you stay ahead of debt collection efforts....

WHAT IS THE "AUTOMATIC STAY" IN BANKRUPTCY?

When a person files for bankruptcy (Chapter 7, 13, or 11), all his or her creditors are immediately prevented from attempting to collect the debt. This is called the "automatic stay." This means that filing for a bankruptcy immediately relieves a person from creditor harassment such as annoying phone calls, lawsuits, repossessions, foreclosures, and any other method for collection of a debt.

Likewise, prior to Bankruptcy, a creditor may initiate the wage garnishment procedure against you in order to take 25% of your wages. The filing of a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy automatically stops the creditor from proceeding with the wage garnishment. In the same manner, your finance company can be stopped right away from repossessing your car. These are all examples of the "automatic stay" of Bankruptcy....

Many consumers are harassed by debt collectors every day. They can be intimidating and use fear to strike a sense of urgency in the debtor. However, dealing with creditors does not have to be like this and consumers have the right to protect themselves against unfair or abusive debt collection practices....

A US citizen living or working in Canada incurs not only a tax obligation to the Canadian government but is also still liable for US income tax. Every tax preparation business is aware that the IRS imposes collection of income tax on worldwide income of US citizens. But US citizens also report holdings of foreign assets to the IRS.....