Bankruptcy & Tax Refund

[armani222]

My husband and I are getting ready to file Chapter 7. Attorney has all of the paperwork and is prepared to file BUT.... we did our taxes today and found out that we are getting back $9,000 as a couple! We were told that we could have 6k in assets each (were in Florida). We were also told that if we received any amount of money back from tax return that it would have to be spent on monthly bills before we can file.

We really dont want to put this off any longer. We have a baby due in July and want to save the money for when we really need it.

What are we allowed to do??
Please help!

[lrprn]

We really dont want to put this off any longer. We have a baby due in July and want to save the money for when we really need it.

If you have a bk lawyer, talk to him/her about how this large tax refund may impact your filing. Can the entire $9K sum be protected and your state exemptions still protect the other assets and household goods that you want to keep after filing?

Although it would be hard to spend down enough of the $9K on legitimate expenses quickly before filing if you hope to do that soon, you could do that to get the amount down under what can be protected if necessary. Again, this is a question to ask your bk lawyer (or if you haven't retained one yet, ask during your free initial consultations with 3-4 experienced bk lawyers in your area).