Retirement Accounts

[danaf]

Is the money one has coming out of their paychecks going into a 401k considered exempt?

And one has to start doing this at least 6 mos before filing in order to qualify it as exempt?

[HHM]

No, the contributions are NOT exempt. However, you are allowed to have a certain percentage of your income devoted to 401K contributions as an expense in your BK.

Keep in mind, there is a difference between "assets" and "income" in the world of BK. Assets are "exempt" and in so far as your 401K contributions are voluntary, the contribution amount, itself, is NOT exempt, the amount is part of your wages. Thus, the amount of contribution does get counted as part of your Net Income (net income for BK purposes is Gross Income minus required governmental withholding, i.e. SS, FICA, etc). However, you can count the contribution to your 401K as an expense on Schedules I & J. The amount you can claim as an expense probably varies district by disctrict.

[spell]

HHM is right about exempt vs allowable expenses.
In most places, it's only mandatory retirement expenses that are not classified as disposable income.

By the fact that you're asking it sounds like yours aren't mandatory.