How is your forward looking income calculated?

[optimistic1]

The reason i ask, is that my wife is pregnant, and has been missing days at work over the pregnancy for obvious reasons. But after the baby is born, she will be on leave, and then she will return to work.

I want to make sure that they confirm the plan.

So how is it calculated? I know the qualification is a 6 month look back, but I dont want that average, it will be low.

[woeisme]

Too low to have the plan confirmed? Because most of the time, low is better :-) Give you more breathing room in your plan, only becomes a problem if it means you won't get confirmed because you can't cover all the secured and priority creditors. I know when I confirmed that I had to explain any expected change in income though, so if you are worried that you can't get confirmed with your current low lookback, you can explain how you'd be able to meet your obligations in the future due to predicted changing circumstances.

[sassiebaz]

So, how would that work if right now we have two incomes, but Im going to be going to school fulltime in the fall....and NOT working? Also, can you or anyone else answer....how many months worth of bank statements are required?

[optimistic1]

I spoke to my attorney and he tried telling me that he would calculate it based on the previous 6 months. I insisted that he was wrong, that it should be forward looking, and if he took into account the previous 6 months, there would be 6 weeks of no paychecks for my wife because of maternity leave.

He told me to just right out what her wage is, and he would determine another way.

Either way, if the income is low based on his 6 month method, I will just work backwards on what is required to pay all claims and adjust my expenses accordingly to leave the unsecured claims at about $1000, which in turn will keep my plan payment the same.

[optimistic1]

bump, any pro se filers that have calculated their income?

[kornellred]

There is no such thing as calculating Chapter 13 payments based upon forward looking income.

[optimistic1]

the reason I ask is I dont want the trustee to somehow calculate that based on my current income I can pay more into the plan. If you calculate it based on the 6 month look back, it will show that my wife didnt work 6 weeks, because of maternity leave. So, in the future, she will not be on leave anymore.

Do you see where I am coming from?

I dont want to submit a plan based on 6 month income at $3400, when in actuality it will be $3600 and the trustee says I can pay $200 more into the plan, when I would actually want that extra money to pay for my expenses.

[Gerry]

We all run into that wall when we file. Your attorney can submit a lower payment based on your projected income, but whether the trustee will accept it is a different matter.

[optimistic1]

my payment is pretty much set, the claims will be irs, attorney, trustee fee, crammed car loan, and maybe a bestbuy claim, all in all, $350 pays all those claims within 36 months, with only $1000 or so left for any unsecured non-priority claims.

I just dont want to chince myself, and end up paying $450 because they calculate it different than my attorney. My budget will be somewhat tight, but I want to maximize each and every individual allowable expense.