Business Bankruptcy: Should I file for bankruptcy, or just my business?

The answer to this question will depend entirely on your unique circumstances. Your business is its own separate entity, and so it is able to file for bankruptcy separately from you. There may be situations where you may want to do both a business and a personal bankruptcy.

Often times, as a business begins to lose power, business owners will pour their own time and resources into keeping the business alive. As a result, a failing business tends to put a financial strain on the owners, who may be choosing to neglect their own finances to keep the business alive. For business owners who rely upon their business as their primary source of income or who have sacrificed their own money to keep a business going, filing both a business and a personal bankruptcy may be necessary.

Additionally, due to the risky nature of starting a new business, many creditors will require an owner to co-sign for their business. If you have co-signed or personally guaranteed a debt, you (and any other co-signors) will still owe that debt even if the business eliminates that debt through bankruptcy. If your goal is to eliminate that debt, the only way to truly eliminate it would be to file both a personal and a business bankruptcy.

At Russell, Tighe &Alexander PC, we specialize in both personal and business bankruptcies, and so we can help to explain the details of either, or both, types of filings.