Teacher income question....

[baguy]

I'll be married filing singly, and my wife is a teacher who gets paid a normal bi-weekly paycheck most of the year, except in June she gets paid a lump sum for 3 months of summer pay. So, for income / means test, if I file right after the six months are up on the "lump" sum payment in June (so file in Dec.), will that lump sum not count? Because that would cut her income in half basically, depending on how they look at this 6 month window....

Is this OK to do, or is this looked upon as "abuse" by the Trustee?

[lrprn]

In the weird current bankruptcy world shackled to the Means Test, when your wife receives the income is what matters - not that it's meant to pay for several months.

If you file in December, you will need to include her income from June 1 to November 30 (it's a full calendar month look-back for six months). If you want to exclude her inflated June income, then you the first time you can do that is to file between January 1-31, 2009.

Will the trustee see this as 'abuse'? No, you are just obeying the law as it's written. This is pre-planning before you file and not only is it ok, it's what everyone who files should be doing.