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I received a 1 time bonus in July (5k) for referring a new employee. I am getting an annual bonus on Feb 1st (8k). The annual bonus is not guaranteed each year. Half the people in my office got no bonus this year and I only received one 2 of the last 5 years. Basically I want to try and keep the bonuses off my income for the trustee to base my monthly payment on.
For my previous 6 months of income it works out to my advantage to file in February and use August - January as my prior 6 months. I will provide my prior 2 years tax returns as well to show I got a bonus 1 year but not the prior.
I want to use the Feb bonus to fix my car ($500-$1000), fix a couple of things in my condo ($500-$1000) pay off a secured loan (furniture - $1800), and pay the appraiser for my condo (lawyer says I need an official appraisal to show the trustee my condo is worth less than what I owe). The furniture loan is 0 percent interest until May and then is 25% after. With the furniture about $500 of accrued interest will be added to the total in May so the $1800 becomes $2300. I figure since an 8k bonus will be around $5000-$5500 after taxes that there will be only a couple thousand left that I may use to pay down my car loan a bit, apply to my mortgage, or if the right deal presents itself I can settle with one of my credit cards (right deal would be 25% or less settlement since the trustee will be paying them around 50% based on the initial numbers my lawyer has compiled).
I also expect to receive about 6k in a tax refund this year after filing.
I tried to check case law in NJ but nothing exists for tax refunds. I have a feeling the trustee will take it this year but you never know. For next year I will adjust my deductions so I will not get as large a refund.
How does it work if you file 1 month and then get a bonus between filing and the 341? Or filing and getting your plan set but then getting a bonus after the plan is confirmed? With my income the bonus is less than 10% of the my annual income.
Would paying off the furniture or settling a card be considered a preferred payment that the trustee may disallow?
My argument to keep a portion of the tax return and bonus is because my condo is in negative equity and i would like to pay it down. I owe about 17 percent more than it is worth right now but I expect it to recover to break even in about 3 years.
I need to call my lawyer next week to let him know about this so we can adjust our strategy and preliminary numbers.
I received a 1 time bonus in July (5k) for referring a new employee. I am getting an annual bonus on Feb 1st (8k). The annual bonus is not guaranteed each year. Half the people in my office got no bonus this year and I only received one 2 of the last 5 years. Basically I want to try and keep the bonuses off my income for the trustee to base my monthly payment on.
For my previous 6 months of income it works out to my advantage to file in February and use August - January as my prior 6 months. I will provide my prior 2 years tax returns as well to show I got a bonus 1 year but not the prior.
I want to use the Feb bonus to fix my car ($500-$1000), fix a couple of things in my condo ($500-$1000) pay off a secured loan (furniture - $1800), and pay the appraiser for my condo (lawyer says I need an official appraisal to show the trustee my condo is worth less than what I owe). The furniture loan is 0 percent interest until May and then is 25% after. With the furniture about $500 of accrued interest will be added to the total in May so the $1800 becomes $2300. I figure since an 8k bonus will be around $5000-$5500 after taxes that there will be only a couple thousand left that I may use to pay down my car loan a bit, apply to my mortgage, or if the right deal presents itself I can settle with one of my credit cards (right deal would be 25% or less settlement since the trustee will be paying them around 50% based on the initial numbers my lawyer has compiled).
I also expect to receive about 6k in a tax refund this year after filing.
I tried to check case law in NJ but nothing exists for tax refunds. I have a feeling the trustee will take it this year but you never know. For next year I will adjust my deductions so I will not get as large a refund.
How does it work if you file 1 month and then get a bonus between filing and the 341? Or filing and getting your plan set but then getting a bonus after the plan is confirmed? With my income the bonus is less than 10% of the my annual income.
Would paying off the furniture or settling a card be considered a preferred payment that the trustee may disallow?
My argument to keep a portion of the tax return and bonus is because my condo is in negative equity and i would like to pay it down. I owe about 17 percent more than it is worth right now but I expect it to recover to break even in about 3 years.
I need to call my lawyer next week to let him know about this so we can adjust our strategy and preliminary numbers.
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