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Yes. When a consumer files for Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy, they receive immediate protection from the automatic stay, a court order that halts collection actions. In other words, if a creditor was preparing to garnish your wages, they cannot start to do so. If they were already garnishing your wages, the garnishments must stop until the automatic stay is lifted. In most cases, the automatic stay will remain in effect throughout your bankruptcy case. If the debt related to the garnishment is discharged, the garnishments cannot continue post-bankruptcy. If you cannot wipe out the underlying debt, wage garnishments will likely resume once your bankruptcy case is over, but you will hopefully have the financial resources needed to pay the debt in full.

You can only discharge tax debt in very specific circumstances. If you recently got a huge tax bill you know that you cannot pay, bankruptcy will not be able to provide relief. Generally, you can only discharge income tax debt that is at least three years old. You must not have committed tax fraud or tax evasion, and you must have filed the applicable returns. More recent tax debt and other types of tax debt cannot be discharged. Get legal advice before filing for bankruptcy if you are looking to eliminate any kind of tax debt.

It depends, but you may in some circumstances be able to change your mind after filing for bankruptcy. The functional way of doing so involves asking the court to dismiss your case. In many situations, the court will allow the dismissal and allow you to withdraw if no creditors object (and there are no extenuating circumstances in which dismissing the case would harm the creditors). You will most likely need to provide the court with a sound explanation for seeking a dismissal. An unexpected windfall might make an in-progress bankruptcy unnecessary, for example, especially if you now have the financial resources to pay off your debts.