Marital Adjustment

[sportster]

Anyone know anything about or hear their lawyer talk about the marital adjustment on the Ch. 7 means test? It is meant only for married couples not filing jointly. It's basically a spot on the form to extract some (or all, I guess) income of the non-filing spouse that you had to list on the income section. I'll see what the attorney says today, but I wonder if they will be hesitant to use it since these laws and forms are all so new.

[Minnymouth]

Your attorney can explain this too you.

You can file separately from your spouse, though their income plays a part in the household income.... and you only get credit for half the bills in the home..

Lots of people file separate......or one files and the other spouse doesn't...

[sportster]

Yes my wife is the one who is going to have to file. But our income puts us over the median for the state by about 5,000.00. If I continue down on the means test, and revoke half of my income as the "Marital Adjustment", the amount remaining each month is about -700.00. I don't know what the lawyer will say about the marital adjustment. I do maintain my own checking account and make my own credit card and loan payments. To some degree, our finances are separate. Her 84K unsecured credit card debt is all in her name. That's why I am trying to stay off the BK. I have some assets as well I don't want to give up. When I spoke to him on the phone he said filing separate was perfectly fine. We'll see what happens. Besides, what type of 13 plan could they possibly recommend to entirely unsecured, non-priority debt. The are no mortgage arrears.

[LostOne0069]

I hope you don't live in a community property state.

[sportster]

No, we do not.

[baker]

We were in the exact same boat and our attorney used my car payment (in my name only) plus the monthly payments on the charge cards that are in my name only to subtract out on the marital adjustment. The trustee did question it but they have bought off on it... This is definately on area where I can tell you that there will be wild variations of legal interpretation and will eventually need to be further defined under the bankruptcy code.

Here's how I view it (but my attorney didn't want to argue it this way)...

In my mind it tells you to subtract the amount that is not contributed to the household expenses so I say add up the accepted household expenses, subtract it from the non-filing spouse's income, and use the result for your marital adjustment. To me, this gives you the amount that is essentially your disposable income. If you do it any other way they are going to end up calculating all of the non-filing spouse's disposable income to pay towards a Chapter 13 plan. When I first explained this view to the first attorney we spoke with he looked at me with disdain and would only say, "it doesn't work that way.." So I asked him what happens when my wife (who hasn't worked in 3 years) gets thrown in to a Chapter 13 payment plan and I refuse to pay it? After all, since I didn't file they have no legal right (that I know of) to garnish my wages... To this he replied, "I've never thought about that..."

Bottom line, no one has a clue how the marital adjustment is supposed to work but I sure wish I was an attorney because I'd gladly argue my point pro-bono just to see what happens.