Don't fear the tax audit. If you're not engaged in illegal activity, you have little to fear beyond some extra administrative work. That being said, having your financials reviewed by the IRS isn't ideal. There's no guaranteed strategy to avoid an audit; roughly 1% of taxpayers are audited each year. However, understanding what the IRS looks for when considering an audit can go a long way to avoiding a tax headache.

If you file for bankruptcy, you still have an opportunity to keep your house and vehicles. Whether this will be possible depends on four factors: (1) how much equity you have in the property that you are attempting to keep; and (2) whether your equity in the property exceeds the bankruptcy exemption for that type of property; (3) if you have a loan secured by the property, whether the bank will agree to reaffirm the loan despite the bankruptcy; and (4) whether you will be able to afford to continue to make your loan payments after the bankruptcy.

In this article, we explain the Chapter 7 Bankruptcy process in Illinois. We will explain the difference between Chapter 7 Bankruptcy and Chapter 13 Bankruptcy, how to determine if Chapter 7 Bankruptcy is right for you, how to file for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, what to expect from the First Meeting of Creditors, and what happens after the First Meeting of creditors in a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy case.