What happens to my Ch. 7 if I have a lot of disposable income?

[Heightsman]

How much money can I have at the end of the month and still file a Ch. 7? $100? $200? If I have to file a Ch. 13, how much of my unsecrrued debt will I have to pay back? My disposable income won't be enough to pay all of it.

[lrprn]

Whether you can file Ch 7 or Ch 13 has nothing to do with how much money you have left over at the end of the month. Thanks to our 2005 Congress, whether you can file Ch 7 or have to file Ch 13 is based solely on if you do or don't show disposable income on the required Means Test and Schedules. The Means Test is a complex cross-comparison of your income vs expenses that must use mandated IRS figures for transportation, housing, etc that may or may not match yours.

Start by making appointments for initial consultations with 3-4 experienced bankruptcy lawyers in your area. Go in with all your income and expense figures - you'll get an idea of which chapter you qualify to file for. But until the Means Test is completed by an experienced lawyer who is familiar with how your local court interprets the gray areas of the current bankruptcy laws, you won't know for sure which chapter you can file.

[PaKettle]

Sometimes attorneys - depending on the district you live in, etc. - are willing to "work the system" a little on your expenses, basing things like "household expenses" and "entertainment" and other things not on what you actually spend but on what the maximums are in the tables. There are sometimes ways that you can work the system a little to make sure you qualify for a 7 and not a 13. If you do not CLEARLY qualify for a 7, look for an attorney that will work with you to make you qualify in some way or another.

I'm not talking about cheating but rather, legal ways of qualifying.

For example a friend of mine did not qualify for a 7 because he was not paying rent, he was sleeping on his sister's couch. If he had gone out and rented an apt. for himself, he could have qualified for a 7 instead of paying back $500/month while still sleeping on his sister's couch. I feel this attorney was remiss in not advising him to rent an apt. so he would qualify.