i got discharged so why do i have to send my tax refund to the trustee?

[delilah]

i got discharged so why do i have to send my tax refund to the trustee? what will happen if i don't send it? i already got discharged can they still dismiss my case?

[keepmine]

If you can't exempt it, it's property of the bk estate and yes, your discharge can be revoked.

[delilah]

what do u mean exempt it. how do i do that?

[hopingforsanity]

I'm just curious--how do you know you have to send it to ur trustee?

[JRScott]

Discharge is not the same as closed.

If you are due a significant tax refund it is an asset in your bk case. In many states there are wildcard exemptions you can use to exempt a portion or all of it, but not all states have that.

They'll take the refund and disperse it to your creditors. When I filed I filed after getting my refund (which I used to pay the lawyer.....). When you file the income tax return is an existing asset of the estate even if you've not received it. So they can take it and send money to creditors. If there is money left over after that process finishes you'd get that part back.

[lrprn]

The tax refund you are receiving now includes a refund on income you earned in 2008 while your Ch 7 case was active. Some trustees see that portion as an asset of your case and will hold your case open (discharge you but not close your case) until they see how large the refund is. If it's big enough, they will go after the portion that accrued while your bk was active and claim it as a part of your assets to distribute to your creditors.

Tough to take, but a small price to pay to get a complete discharge of all your other debts.

How much of a refund are you expecting?

[delilah]

we will be getting over $9,000 refund, and that's an ouchy!!!

we filed nov. 04, 08. and got discharged early february, so they will estimate how much they will get based on this time frame, from nov to feb, is that right?

[PoorGrammyinBK7]

The tax refund you are receiving now includes a refund on income you earned in 2008 while your Ch 7 case was active. Some trustees see that portion as an asset of your case and will hold your case open (discharge you but not close your case) until they see how large the refund is. If it's big enough, they will go after the portion that accrued while your bk was active and claim it as a part of your assets to distribute to your creditors.

Tough to take, but a small price to pay to get a complete discharge of all your other debts.

How much of a refund are you expecting?

I thought it was pro-rated and they could only take the portion of taxes refunded on what you would have earned up to the date of filing (mid July for us). I did not know they could take money from earnings you got after your filing date in a Chapter 7. Are you sure they can just keep taking and taking?

[JoeBankrupt33]

Poor Grammy is correct. They can take the amount for the period before the bankruptcy. So, they can take your refund for Jan 1, 2008 to Nov 4, 2008, which is about 84% of your refund, unless any of it is exempted.

[delilah]

so maybe we will get a $1000. oh well.

[delilah]

so maybe we will get a thousand back. oh well!!! so sad!

[delilah]

so maybe we will get a thousand back... oh well!!! so sad!