income and expenses

[betpie]

Hi,

I tried searching for this answer, but I keep getting unrelated posts in my search results.

Can anyone tell me real quick, is it true that I have to have $100 or less leftover after all expenses in order to file Ch. 7? Right now I'm at $287, but I can tweak the numbers a little bit. I'm just wondering if that number is a hard and fast rule...?

[justbroke]

Can anyone tell me real quick, is it true that I have to have $100 or less leftover after all expenses in order to file Ch. 7? Right now I'm at $287, but I can tweak the numbers a little bit. I'm just wondering if that number is a hard and fast rule...?

Basically yes. To clarify, though, you have to have less than $166 per month left over, but the formula is a little more complex.

When it's over $100 but less than $166.67, the presumption of abuse is raised. The way to overcome this is to then look at whether the amount of your disposable income times 60 is more than 25% of all your unsecured debt, of $10,000, whichever is less. If that's so, then it is abusive, and you'll be pushed into a Chapter 13... or your case is dismissed.

With that much disposable income, $287, you will be pushed into a Chapter 13.

The problem with having anything even close to $100, is that the Trustee may start to tweak and move your numbers downwards (to their actual, documented values). So, you don't really want to even have a positive disposable monthly income.

Finally, yes... the numbers are hard and fast! You can't have disposable income that would pay 25% for your unsecured creditors (through a Chapter 13) or more than $10,000 ($166.67/monthly x 60 ) over a sixty month period. Welcome to the BAPCPA!

[AngelinaCat]

We were told to have as little as possible in our account on the day we filed. In fact, on that date, we were at a negative balance.

[betpie]

Thanks so much for the valuable information. My student loans count as unsecured debt, right? Even though they won't be discharged?

[MiSSMaGoo]

My attorney filed us the day we got paid (direct deposit) and we have about $1000 in the bank, I was so worried. They never actually asked for our bank statement and if they would have, our attorney said to tell them the truth and the worst for us would have been paying $900...