Have lost all hope.

[confusedinVA]

I think I read on this forum before that the trustee cant touch your returns anyway if it was from EIC and child tax credit. Is that accurate? It sounds like most of this refund would be from those sources, I might be wrong though.

[LostOne0069]

Spending the tax return isn't a problem, especially if it's on provable needed expenses, like car repairs.

I'd just keep the receipts, just in case.

Emmy, take a deep breath and relax. From what you stated you really sound like a "slam dunk" case. Go to a couple of free lawyer consultations, they'll probably tell you the same thing and put your mind at ease.

[Jeepy89]

Emmy

It would probably be beneficial to you to change your tax withholding so that you do not get such a big refund at the end of the year. It sounds like you guys sure could use it during the year to help pay for necessary expenses instead of letting uncle sam hold on to it.

[Emmy]

Thanks for the welcome!

We usually get our tax refund direct deposited the first couple of weeks in Feb and I planned to get the car fixed right away. It will be at the minimum 2 months after that that we will actually file for BK. What can the trustee do if we have partially spent some of the money before ever filing? We don't plan to tell them we have purposly waited 6 months before filing. So would you still wait, even with that timeline? I thought we'd be able to say something along the lines of we weren't planning BK when we spent the $ on the car repairs.

[BassBoy]

WELCOME TO THE FORUM EMMY!

You sound like a straight Ch.7 BK. I don't see any issues with the cars, because at 9 yrs old and 11 years old, they aren't worth much, regardless of whether or not a lien is placed on one like you have stated.

As for the IRS refund, I wouldn't spend it. It's likely the trustee will want that. It could be an asset. Granted, it may be you're only asset, but an asset. We got about the same IRS refund amount as you and we had to turn a portion over to the trustee.

You have begun the fisrt steps by doing some diligence and getting your ducks in a row, and that's very important. BK is a difficult decision and not a decision anyone should make without being well informed.

[Emmy]

After almost 8 years of stuggling to get out of debt, we are considering filing for BK. I just can't do this anymore, my stomach flip flops everytime I get online to pay bills and I'm starting to have trouble sleeping because I'm constantly stressed about our money situation. We have gotten several sizable income tax returns since having children in 2002 and all have gone towards debt and when my husband switched jobs we cashed out his retirement and put 10,000 towards cc debt. No matter what we can't seem to get ahead of it.

We are now at the point and in so much in debt that after paying all of our monthly bills we end up using the minimum payments we just made on our maxed out cards to buy food and gas. My husband just got a small raise that gives us an extra $250 a month. We plan to use that for food and gas monthly and not use our cc for the next 6 months and file for chapter 7 BK.

I did the calculators on the "allowable expenses" thread. We are about $30,000 below the median income and going by the means test caluculater we are a little over $1500 in the negative for monthly living expenses. Does that sound pretty cut and dried for being able to file a chapter 7?

We only rent so keeping a house is not an issue. We would like to keep our cars. Mine is 11 years old and paid. My husbands is 9 years old but he has borrowed on his orginal loan and still owes a little under 5,000. We would still like to keep making the monthly payments for that and keep it. Do you think we will be able to? We are way below all the exemptions amounts for household goods.

We will get about $2400 for our tax return this year. Half of that will go straight to car repairs that are desperatly needed. I have been driving with no heat or air conditioner for 2 years in the midwest. The other half we plan to save for BK costs and for an ER fund instead of putting it on a cc like we usually do. Will that be a problem for filing in April? Will they want to know where that money went?

If you got this far thanks for hearing me out. It's nice to be able to finally put all the thoughts down. Since we decided to file its just been overwhelming and I can't stop thinking about it, my brain just feels overloaded. I've been lurking here and using all the great advice to make a "to do" list for the next 6 months in preperation for the "file date" If there is anything you could add or advise that I can do to prepare for this, I thank you.