filed today...a little freaked out!

[tallberry]

We filed today and all went pretty well, I guess. We made it under the median income, which is good. The bad news is we received our $9,000 tax return and spent as much as we could comfortably on glasses (holy crap I haven't been to the eye dr in 10 years and it was over $1000), car repairs, groceries, rent, car payments, etc., which is what the attorney told us to do. Now today he says that IN wildcard is only for tangible items, not tax returns. So here we thought we could protect our remaining tax return, only to find out this out. Has anyone heard of this, particularly in IN? I thought a wildcard was for anything? He said because we are in FL and he doesn't know IN laws that well, that we will just have to wait and see what the trustee says. Please anyone, please give me your thoughts...Thanks!

[brokeinAZ]

We filed today and all went pretty well, I guess. We made it under the median income, which is good. The bad news is we received our $9,000 tax return and spent as much as we could comfortably on glasses (holy crap I haven't been to the eye dr in 10 years and it was over $1000), car repairs, groceries, rent, car payments, etc., which is what the attorney told us to do. Now today he says that IN wildcard is only for tangible items, not tax returns. So here we thought we could protect our remaining tax return, only to find out this out. Has anyone heard of this, particularly in IN? I thought a wildcard was for anything? He said because we are in FL and he doesn't know IN laws that well, that we will just have to wait and see what the trustee says. Please anyone, please give me your thoughts...Thanks!

What i was told is if you are waiting on a return before you file the trustee can take it if you have not recieved it yet before filing. Does that make sence?

[CastleKnight]

We live and filed in IN. We had an $8,000 tax return. Ouch! The trustee took it. We filed Dec. 12, 2007 and the taxes were filed Feb 1, 2008.We were discharged yesterday! It hurt but we are glad it is over.

[justplaintired]

So we used our tax check for filing fee and to pay our attorney. Is that ok? He said that would be fine. We had $502 earned income credit of a little over $1350 return. Am I correct that earned income on a tax return is safe? I thought I read that on here. We fall below the median by quite a bit and I believe our expenses will be safe for C7. But if we have to pay back the $1350 to the trustee, we don't have it and won't have it any day soon.

[tallberry]

We already received our return prior to filing. From what I understand, if you spend it on non-luxury items and keep receipts, it's okay (that is if you receive the return prior to filing). If you receive the return after you file and cannot protect it with an exemption, the trustee gets it. Our problem is that we didn't spend ALL of the return, so the money we did not spend is in our checking account and may not be able to be protected by an IN wildcard, per our attorney. I just did not expect this...I thought the wildcard could be used for ANYTHING!

[ameliabedilia]

It really depends on what is standard procedure for your area. I know one member here -pakettle got to keep his because they simply do not take them there. In my district people told me over $1500 or so and they go for it.

[Dollar Bill]

Tallberry...I was just googling around. Maybe this will help. They speak about possibilities of you stating some of the money could be concidered unpaid wages. You worked for yourself in insurance a bit if I remember correctly?

http://en.allexperts.com/q/Bankruptcy-Law-909/Indiana-Definition.htm

[tallberry]

yes, I am an independent. This info is awesome, DB! Thank you soooo much. I wonder if we should try to use the wildcard and if it doesn't fly and they object, then we can try to unpaid wages?