If I make below my state median income,

[lrprn]

Anyone have a link for the allowable expenses in a given area for schedule J ? Do you only need receipts if your expenses in a certain category is above the allowable number?

Here's the best link I've found online regarding expenses - the Expense Calculator at http://www.ca-bankruptcy-attorneys.c...alculator.html

The Doney Law site does a pretty good job explaining allowable expenses too - http://www.doney.net/bra/707_comment.htm

The acceptable maximum level for any allowable expenses is very dependent on individual trustees and local bk court customs. If your expenses are above what's acceptable in your district, then yes, you could be asked by the trustee to justify why yours are legitimately higher with actual bills and receipts.

Learning more about what's acceptable in your bk district is a good question to ask during your free consultation with a bk lawyer or to work through with your own lawyer if you've retained one.

[SinkingFast]

The acceptable maximum level for any allowable expenses is very dependent on individual trustees and local bk court customs. If your expenses are above what's acceptable in your district, then yes, you could be asked by the trustee to justify why yours are legitimately higher with actual bills and receipts.

Learning more about what's acceptable in your bk district is a good question to ask during your free consultation with a bk lawyer or to work through with your own lawyer if you've retained one.

What Lrprn said is sooooo true.

Our Schedules allowable for food for our family is $1300/mo. When I told our paralegal we spent $1000-$1100/mo on food, she said they'd have to use a lower number. I told her I had receipts to prove the expense. The paralegal said that amount would never fly with the Court here.

We'd heard similar comments from other attnys during Consults. Attnys told us the Court here would accept somewhere between $700 and $900/mo tops for food. When our Petition was filed, our Schedule J food expense was listed at $850/mo.

Another way to get a feel for what's allowed by your Court is to check local filings on PACER. You'll see that most attnys in your area will fill in approximately the same amounts.

[no_it_all]

This webpage gives a good example of how a debtor can be under the state's median income but not be eligible for Ch 7 - http://www.businessnorth.com/businesslaw.asp

[anonymuse]

Yes, it can still happen. It depends on projected income and actual expenses on Schedule I and J. Did you see my examples above where people have really low expenses, therefore adequate disposable income? Being below median will shorten the time in a Ch 13 to 36 months.

[hootown]

Yes I saw the examples and thank you. I'm guessing I have about $300 in disposable income. While it's over $167 , it's still far from the amount in the examples.
My guess is they will say it's enough to push me into Ch 13.

[anonymuse]

The trustee can have you file the conversion from Ch 7 to 13 (not sure of the exact working.) I'm assuming, the other option is dismissal, and then your stay is lifted and the creditors come back with twice as much drive as before.

[anonymuse]

Yes I saw the examples and thank you. I'm guessing I have about $300 in disposable income. While it's over $167 , it's still far from the amount in the examples.
My guess is they will say it's enough to push me into Ch 13.

The part of the law that **some** (actually few) trustees appear to disregard is that the amount you payback must be at least 25% of the debt. It's an imperfect law, that's for sure.