Need advice for reporting military income.

[DarcyJ]

My DH and I are filing ch. 7 and working on the paperwork right now. I am recording our income for the last 3 years and have a question. We haven't paid our retainer fee to our lawyer yet, so not sure I could get advice from him yet. We just had a free consult. Anyway, my DH is active duty military and his housing allowance is non-taxable income. So, our gross income (per taxes) is about $20,000 less than his total yearly entitlement. If we lived on the base, we would not get this housing allowance. The form we have says to use the YTD income space on the most recent pay stub and gross income on our last two years' taxes. But, I don't want to get busted at the last minute for that income. Thanks!

[Tbornetun]

Your BAH does not count as income. Use the actual pay, do not include BAH or any other reimbursments.

[DarcyJ]

Thanks!

[MomIcantFindmy]

Actually any money received will count in your BK. BAH, BAS, Specialty pay, Flight pay, Sub pay and on and on. If you receive a check from your Mother in the last 6 months for $100 they will count it. Put your taxable income for the last years per whatever your taxes say and for the current year you must include everything (all sources of income). We found this out the hard way and had to amend our forms. BTW my husband just retired too! Good Luck!

[HHM]

ANY AND ALL sources of income count, so yes, your BAH counts as income for Bankruptcy purposes.

[Tbornetun]

But BAH isn't income, I was told it is a reimbursement. I guess if it counts, it counts. We don't have any FT Active Duty bases in our area so we don't run into this around here.

The National Guard and Reservists Debt Relief Act of 2008 will take effect Dec. 19th. There is a temporary exclusion from the means test for reservists and members of the National Guard who are called to active duty for at least 90 days. It just came across my desk today.

As of 12/19/2008 the means test will include a new Part 1C where qualifying debtors can invoke a temporary exclusion from the means test.

[HHM]

But BAH isn't income, I was told it is a reimbursement. I guess if it counts, it counts. We don't have any FT Active Duty bases in our area so we don't run into this around here.

The National Guard and Reservists Debt Relief Act of 2008 will take effect Dec. 19th. There is a temporary exclusion from the means test for reservists and members of the National Guard who are called to active duty for at least 90 days. It just came across my desk today.

As of 12/19/2008 the means test will include a new Part 1C where qualifying debtors can invoke a temporary exclusion from the means test.

Let me put it this way, for BK purposes, any MONEY you get, from whatever sources, and for whatever reason, is income.

[Tbornetun]

I was agreeing with you. I said if it counts, it counts (based on what you said) and that I don't have a lot of experience with FT Active Duty clients.

Your right, I'm wrong

The other section about the new Debt Relief Act (eff. 12/19/2008) was for informational reasons. Possibly they would qualify for this exclusion and it may be worth looking into.