Stop losing sleep over your tax situation. I'm Darrin Mish \u2014 a tax attorney in Tampa who's spent 32 years handling exactly this kind of problem. Here's what you need to know.<\/p>\n
The court appointed trustee in the bankruptcy filing of Housewives actress Teresa Guidice and her husband Joe filed papers that allege the Guidices \u201cknowingly and fraudulently\u201d made \u2018false oaths\u2019 or \u2018accounts\u2019 when filing their original bankruptcy petition back in October of 2009 and went on to make additional false \u2018accounts\u2019 on amendments filed after the original petition while under oath during subsequent hearings.<\/p>\n
The celebrity couple filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection listing more than $11 million in debts. At the same time, they claim they do not have any bank accounts, did not disclose all their businesses or their income from the year they filed for bankruptcy, did not provide details of a contract with a Bravo production company and Teresa did not disclose the book deal she signed where she was paid an advanced payment of $250,000 for \u2018Skinny Italian\u2019, among other things.<\/p>\n
According to the trustee, the Guidices have made \u2018multiple amendments\u2019 to their petition but in none of them did they reveal any information pertaining to Teresa\u2019s \u2018Skinny Italian\u2019 cookbook deal, the advance she received amounting to a quarter of a million dollars, the publishing deal they had with Hyperion, the company Teresa was running called TG Fabulous LLC and the fact that Joe had an interest in one of his own properties.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, the trustee also recorded that Joe and Teresa included their 2006, 2007 and 2008 individual tax returns with their bankruptcy filing but the IRS confirmed never receiving these returns from the couple. The court documents are silent on whether the Guidices have failed to file joint tax returns with the IRS.<\/p>\n
As such the trustee focused on the couple\u2019s original petition\u2019s financial statement that stated Joe earned more than half a million dollars in 2008. In the opinion of the trustee, this income coupled with what Teresa earned from her online boutique, TG Fabulous (incorporated in 2009) and for her role in Real Housewives of New Jersey, was enough to pay for their debts.<\/p>\n
The bankruptcy trustee filed three counts against the Guidices that alleged they were involved in \u201cTransferring, removing, destroying, mutilating, or concealing with intent to hinder, delay, or defraud creditors or the case trustee\u201d.<\/p>\n
He also filed a fifth count which is an objection to the discharge. The trustee based this on \u201cfailure to explain satisfactorily any loss of assets or deficiency of assets to meet the defendant\u2019s liabilities\u201d. This is another way of saying the trustee does not support the couple\u2019s petition to have their debts discharged through bankruptcy.<\/p>\n