Oak Park Real Estate & Estate Planning Blog

According to an article in Forbes , there are more than 44 million student loan borrowers in the U.S. who collectively owe about $1.3 trillion in student loans. For some of these borrowers, Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) may allow them to have their federal student loan debt forgiven after 10 years without having to pay federal income taxes on the amount of debt that is ultimately forgiven. For most other borrowers, eligibility for forgiveness comes after either 20 or 25 years of qualifying payments, depending on the type of repayment plan the borrowers pay under. Yet those borrowers will be responsible for federal income tax on the amount of debt that is forgiven. For some student debtors, that amount is too much to bear. Indeed, some debtors have considered filing for consumer bankruptcy due to the tax debt owed on forgiven student loans. A recent article from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) reports that thousands of debtors with severe disabi...

Are you struggling to repay student loans ? Are you considering personal bankruptcy but recognize that it can be difficult to receive a bankruptcy discharge for your hefty student loan balance? If you owe a substantial amount of money in student loans, you might be wondering if there are any other options to have your loans forgiven, canceled, or discharged. Generally speaking, if most of your loans are private, you are going to have a more difficult time having your loans forgiven than if most of your debt involves federal student loans. However, the good news is that many borrowers may be eligible for federal student loan discharge or forgiveness, and a number of them do not even know it. So, in what situations can you apply to have your federal loans forgiven, canceled, or discharged? According to a fact sheet from Federal Student Aid , an office of the U.S. Department of Education, the following represent some frequently asked questions about qualifying for student loan...