What Are the Chances? Payment raised.

[dmc-2008]

What are the chances of a payment being raised if you are not in a step up program? My kids child care (250.00 x 8 months a year) has ended as she goes off to high school . So I am wondering if the trustee will want that and if she does do they then make you go thru all the expense paperwork or do they just ask for more money cut and dried?? Thank you!!!

[jange]

dmc it really depends on the trustee. I only hear from the trustee once a year when they send the annual statement. He does not require that we must our tax returns.

[dmc-2008]

I need to send in returns every year so I feel more volnerable.

[kornellred]

Pretty much what jange said: when there are inevitable increases in DMI that will occur during the Chapter 13 payment plan period, they will have been (or should have been) dealt with in the planning stages and specified in the plan confirmation document. Some trustees are very aggressive and review their cases with annoying regularity. Most, however, are content to see to it that the confirmed plan stipulations are adhered to.

Debtors are, of course, bound by law to report increases in their income/DMI situations as part of the whole Chapter 13 procedure. You will not be penalized if you do not report this decreased expense, but if the trustee were to somehow discover it, some sort of modification of your plan payment might follow. There is no way the trustee could ever find out about the decrease in child care expenses unless he or she were deliberately informed.

The best advice is to talk to your attorney.

[angel7821]

I had to send in my tax return every year and my income had increased every year. My plan payment never went up so I think you will be ok. I sometimes wonder when the trustee gets the return if he just looks to see if there is a refund to the debtor and looks at nothing else.

[andy158]

It depends on your district/trustee. Ours has not raised our plan payment since day one and we are into the last year of five. We have to submit our tax returns and our income has risen every year. Nothing drastic, but our income is now significantly higher than when we filed.

[dmc-2008]

I appreciate all the response. I have to say this is my biggest fear. Hopefully after a couple years I will relax. Seems like most just get to keep under the radar. Looking towards a successful discharge! Good luck all!

[adargie]

We have just recieved notice to raise our paymetn yet again!! We are into year 3 of 5, and our payment started at 450 then went to 805 then to 1104 now they want $2100 a month, my husband works soley on commision, he has done better these last 2 years and they have punished us for it. We have turned in all tax returns and so on. It this normal? the problem is we never know what he will bring home, so if he has a few bad months then theres no way the payment will get made. And hes starting to slow down. My income covers the mortgage and the this payment. Well the new payment has just blown it out of the water! I don't understand why they are constantly after us when in other cases I hear the payment has never increased. Is this normal? I am trying to get ahold of my lawyer to figure something out. We may have to dissmiss if we can't keep this payment up.

[magic13]

We have just recieved notice to raise our paymetn yet again!! We are into year 3 of 5, and our payment started at 450 then went to 805 then to 1104 now they want $2100 a month, my husband works soley on commision, he has done better these last 2 years and they have punished us for it. We have turned in all tax returns and so on. It this normal? the problem is we never know what he will bring home, so if he has a few bad months then theres no way the payment will get made. And hes starting to slow down. My income covers the mortgage and the this payment. Well the new payment has just blown it out of the water! I don't understand why they are constantly after us when in other cases I hear the payment has never increased. Is this normal? I am trying to get ahold of my lawyer to figure something out. We may have to dissmiss if we can't keep this payment up.

Are you in the Eastern District of Michigan, how much has your income varied? You act as if this is a shock to you, but don't you get a chance to modify it before the Judge reaches his or her decision

[adargie]

We are in west michigan, not sure of district. I just recieved the motion to dismiss due to us not telling them about the increase in income, but I was under the impression thats what the tax returns did, my husband is commision based so we never have any idea what hes making from one day to the next. When we filed our income combined was about 82K, 2012 was 119,000 we are almost 3 years into the filing. That does not mean we will make that amoun tthis year, we have scraped to make these past payments and try to keep up with what life throws at you. The last time they filed a motion to dismiss the payment went from 450 to 850. We met with our lawyer and he was no help it seems

[dmc-2008]

Well that would kill me too! Seems like the trustee would need to re-evaluate your expenses then too. So you have to resubmit all the expense paperwork or do they just send you a notice of increase and you pay that? Wow-wee!

[andy158]

I agree with previous post. You must review the original schedules you filed with. Your living expenses have definitely gone up since you filed. I know ours have. Car insurance, health insurance, property taxes, utilities, food, etc. have all gone up for us. Our DMI has not grown significantly even though our income has steadily increased.

Your income has only gone up about 32%, but your plan payments have nearly doubled! Something isn't right here. We are allowed a 10% increase in income per year before we have to notify our trustee. I feel for your situation. Your attorney needs to address this.

[adargie]

Thanks for your replies, yes I agree this needs to be addressed, my husband called another attorny just for advice and he said we are at their mercy. Of course my atty is fully paid off and we haven't heard back from him yet. Ugh, we cannot let this go to dismissal. We have a large amount of tax debt on this, and cannot have them penalize us for it. I have that horrible hopeless feeling. We have been doing so well keeping up with payments too. The way my husbands income is we don't know he is making more until the end of the year anyway. From the sounds of it we have to pay back to them every penny of overage from the previous year