Additional ( wife ) Income

[Skorpnix]

A question for the mods.
Can the Trustee adjust you payment amount due to getting married while in a 13 even though none of her income goes to helping any of the bills I have been paying already ( rent , utilites , insurance , etc )? I ask this because DW has her own bills, car, insurance, her own food and none of our bills have been combined. I filed single and we got married while me being in 13 but not a single dime is going to help out the month to month expenses. She makes only 25K a year and that basically is enough to pay her own bills as we all know how expensive it is to live in CA. On my confirmation paperwork it states that I must include in my year to year expense report of anyone that is helping with the bills but I can honestly say and with no paper trail as there is none of her paying in any bills. The rent is in my name, car is my name as hers is in hers. Any comments would be appreciated. Thank you.

[road warrior]

I'm in a similar situation only I re-married in July '06. We don't have any bills together, I paid my stuff, she paid her stuff. I wanted to file CH. 7 without including her, but I still had to claim her income. That put me over the limit so we ended up filing a joint Ch. 13.

I'd say you're better off doing what you're doing now, it could backfire on you and the trustee could raise your payment.

Maybe check with your attorney to get an expert opinion.

[1/2 way in OR]

Hi there,

I got married while I was in my 13. I talked with my attorney, (before I got married), and he said that I would need to submit a new budget to the trustee as my ‘household’ income would change after I was married. The budget was a wash as my wife’s expenses equaled her income, and I never heard anything from the trustee after I submitted the budget. She was allowed to have credit cards and purchase a vehicle just like a real person, as she is not liable for my BK. We were married a few months after my BK started and are now down to our last payment.

I did not know if the trustee could find out that I got married, but I did not want to take a chance on doing anything wrong. Looking back I wish that I was never in this situation, but I am. Everything has gone as well as possible, I followed the rules, had a great attorney, and the Trustee was straight-up.

But I do not know if the rules regarding household income are different from area to area, (like tax return rules seem to vary), so you might want to fly this by your attorney.

Have a good one.

[magyar123]

Unless you are required to submit annual tax returns to the trustee throughout the years of your Chapter 13 plan - and therefore filing a joint tax return - no one will ever find out that you are married.

[Skorpnix]

With my attorney's paperwork I must inform him if I get married ( which I have ) but with the trustee I do not BUT I must inform them if there is contribution by someone else within the household which there is not due to her little income per year ( 20-25k ) and in CA everyone knows you cant live on that and still have a car, insurance, cc bills, food. I will be doing my taxes married but filing seperate as with everything else having her credit/bills/taxes not associated with my issues. To be honest she takes me out to dinner once or twice a month which is 20-40 dollars more a month but then my electric bill has gone up by 25 a month so it negats each other. Anyone thing I have anything to worry about with Trustee coming for more money?