Florida mad tax return

[Pavetim]

It's one thing after another so I fell into the income criteria or obviously I couldn't file ch 7. I was over the personal exemptiom limit so I had to pay $3800 and now trustee is saying she needs my portion of the tax return, why is she taking my tax return?

[justbroke]

She is taking your tax refund because (a) you didn't exempt it, and (b) it's an asset.

[Pavetim]

So I think we filed before I got the return back, can we still do an exemption now?

[justbroke]

So I think we filed before I got the return back, can we still do an exemption now?

If you are having to pay $3,800 to the Trustee already, you likely have no more exemptions left. If you used or received the benefit of the "unused homestead exemption" then you only had $1,000 in personal property exemption (doubled in married and filing jointly). You would need to check whether you exhausted all of your exemptions.

If that $3,800 is from a motor vehicle that exceeded the exemption under 222.25(1) then it's possible that you have some exemption left over from 222.25(4). If you don't own or claimed the homestead exemption you may have an additional $4,000 in wildcard (per debtor), but I don't know.

The fact that you have to pay $3,800 is leaning me towards telling you that you don't have any remaining exemption value to protect your portion of the tax return. Additionally, if you have children and some portion is attributable to EITC then that is exempt by statute (but you must protect it by claiming the exemption).

Did you file with an attorney?

(You say "your portion" of the tax refund which tells me that you're married. It's possible to claim it property held as tenancy by the entireties (TBE). You'd have to ask your attorney. If you filed without an attorney you'll have to see if there is some way to exempt with remaining exemptions.)

[Pavetim]

I am married but filed separately since we are separated and getting divorced so it's my portion of the tax return. Well that makes sense about the exe.ption then