Ohhh NOOOO!!!

[coolmom04]

Met with the attorney today. He's still not worried. All we need to do is have copies of all the bank statements and highlighted (and put in a spreadsheet) all the expenses for my debt and stuff that we claimed. They also want documentation of my mom's medical needs - doctor's names, prescriptions, breakdown of her insurance. Nothing to worry about - we have it all. They said that if we actually have more expenses than we wrote down... that's even better. Apparently the BA only wants documentation for my stuff b/c we said I had no income. I guess in our district we're allowed to do this.

So, I have a gazillion papers to turn in to the attorney. Everything is supposed to be up to the date of filing... nothing after that matters!

Wachovia can't get us copies of our bank statements until Tuesday and HSBC doesn't have copies of our statements for February and March online. I'll be calling them tomorrow.

[coolmom04]

Yeah, we only included my husband's income b/c he's the only one who had income in our house at the time of filing. I just got a job so now we have my income as well. I wouldn't have taken the job, but the attorney told me there was absolutely no reason not to and that everything would be fine... now I am kind of wishing I hadn't taken it.

I didn't have substantial CC debt, but I was paying on three cards and student loans.

[SMinGA]

The difference may be you counted her income AND expenses. Not just debt/expenses.

Perhaps I'm missing something in your situation, but in my case we definately included my wife's expenses in my ch 7 case--we were counting her income as household income, so the expenses went along with it. Perhaps you don't have much for expenses; I saw that you had paid off your cc's, whereas my wife had substantial cc debt. Anyway, I hope it all works out for you. A ch 13 isn't the end of the world.

[SMinGA]

There is something in the bk code saying support to household/family members who are unable to support themselves gets counted. Nothing to say that the debts of other household members count. If person A has credit card debt, only person A is responsible for that payment.

I don't know for sure this IS the issue, it may just be that you have nearly $400 disposable income based on the means test.

On a side note... if we aren't allowed to count MY expenses (non-filing spouse), why would we be allowed to count my mom's?? Is it b/c hers isn't creditors? It's health insurance and medical needs?

[mercedesc350]

Perhaps I'm missing something in your situation, but in my case we definately included my wife's expenses in my ch 7 case--we were counting her income as household income, so the expenses went along with it. Perhaps you don't have much for expenses; I saw that you had paid off your cc's, whereas my wife had substantial cc debt. Anyway, I hope it all works out for you. A ch 13 isn't the end of the world.

[coolmom04]

Thanks everybody. I really appreciate all your input. I guess I don't understand why my attorney would have said we could count my expenses if we weren't allowed to. After all, he's never had a case dismissed or converted... so I just don't know.

I can't distance myself from his case b/c I am the one doing everything. I'm the one who has controlled all the finances, so I took the bull by the horns and he's just along for the ride I guess. He understands everything, but I am the one leading. The attorney knows all this and they all talk to me most of the time.

I need to just prepare myself for a 13 and suck it up. I think the worst part about this is that we let those two cars go b/c we planned and thought we'd get the 7 and now we'll have to pay off the 55K for them and we just bought the freakin' things in December. We might have actually been able to afford them in a 13 but am not 100% sure how a 13 works. Oh well.. live and learn, right? I will just keep praying hard and see what happens.

On a side note... if we aren't allowed to count MY expenses (non-filing spouse), why would we be allowed to count my mom's?? Is it b/c hers isn't creditors? It's health insurance and medical needs?

[mercedesc350]

If at all possible, coolmom, you need to "distance" yourself from your husbands situation. As I understand it in your case, he filed and you did not. Now, I do not know all your expenses and income numbers. However, I went through a situation where I filed and my wife did not. The whole effort was to jettison my significant cc and auto debts. My wife simply wouldn't play ball...now keep in mind we have totally separate checking and cc's, and house is in her name only also. She made sure the trustee and court knew that she didn't file, didn't wanna file, and wasn't going to have her finances dragged in to a chapter 13 payment. It's a tough card to play, and you need a good lawyer to confidently do it. Again, your situation may not work in that regard. It did in mine.

[Meatstick]

Another thing to be aware of the TT will generally instruct you to inform the court when you have had an increase of 10% or more in income. They will review and then adjust your payments higher than what your original plan payment was.

[SMinGA]

Possibly.

Normally the non-filing spouse's personal expenses (not household related) do not count in the filing spouse's expenses. That is my understanding at least. OTherwise, it would be pretty easy for people to cheat the system. NOT saying that is what you were trying to do. I don't know that the trustee can allow the debtor's creditors to get nothing at the expense of the debtor's wife's accounts getting paid. ONe is not responsible for paying the other's accounts...

So what exactly do they want regarding the marital adjustment from the income from the non-filing spouse?? They're wanting documentation of all my expenses?

[SMinGA]

Depends on your district. If you did as your attorney instructed, you should be good on that point. Your attorney will know how your district handles it.

So, if all our refund was based on child tax credit, which it is, does that mean we DID NOT need to include that... or we did?

[coolmom04]

So what exactly do they want regarding the marital adjustment from the income from the non-filing spouse?? They're wanting documentation of all my expenses?

[coolmom04]

So, if all our refund was based on child tax credit, which it is, does that mean we DID NOT need to include that... or we did?

I dunno... I'm waiting for the paralegal to let us know what documentation they actually need from us. They have some of it already.

I'm basically screwed with MY payments b/c we paid my credit cards off just a week ago.

I'm a nervous wreck. If we have to convert to a 13 and pay the $300/month, that's not a big deal to me, but it seems like it will be a whole lot more now that I am working. My job now puts us 30K over the median. It'd put us at a 100% payback I am sure. We had about 36K in ccs and 55K in vehicles that we let go... which we probably could have afforded to keep and would have if we were going to do a 13. Ugh. I am so sick of all this.

[jdcat]

If you had room, couldn't you just exempt that as "cash"?

We can only exempt up to $600 for cash. We did ask our attorney if we can change our withholding so that we get almost nothing back and he said we can do anything we wish as far as our withholding goes. I'd rather change our withholding than hand about a grand over to the trustee.

[JEM]

We are the in the same situation. We get back three grand every year but it's all child tax credit. We have to turn our next tax refund over to the trustee in 2011. I guess trustees here, according to my attorney, take the refund and give you back a prorated amount depending on when you filed. Sucks.

They are already talking about NEXT years taxes?? Wow.

I was wondering about this as we may not file until November-ish now.

If you had room, couldn't you just exempt that as "cash"?

[jdcat]

We are the in the same situation. We get back three grand every year but it's all child tax credit. We have to turn our next tax refund over to the trustee in 2011. I guess trustees here, according to my attorney, take the refund and give you back a prorated amount depending on when you filed. Sucks.