Median I income

[aaj67]

A friend of mine is moving from Tennessee to New York. In Tennessee she doesn't qualify for chapter 7 because her income is above the median income for TN. However, she qualifies for chapter 7 in New York. Is there a residency requirement in New York? In other words, would she be able to use the median income in NY to qualify for Chapter 7?

[SMinGA2]

She would file where she has lived the majority of the last 6 months. So once she is in NY for ~91 days, she should be able to file there. She'd need a competent attorney though, one that understands and is willing to do the extra work of using another state's exemptions. The exemption rule is different. She'd use TN's exemptions, unless she wasn't there very long (don't recall all the details on this part) in which case she might end up using federal.

[aaj67]

She would file where she has lived the majority of the last 6 months. So once she is in NY for ~91 days, she should be able to file there. She'd need a competent attorney though, one that understands and is willing to do the extra work of using another state's exemptions. The exemption rule is different. She'd use TN's exemptions, unless she wasn't there very long (don't recall all the details on this part) in which case she might end up using federal.

I just want to be clear. You're saying she can file chapter 7 after 91 days in NY using the median income there. However, she will have to use TN's exemptions because she needs to be at least 2 years in NY in order to use its exemptions.

[SMinGA2]

That is my understanding. She can research the residency requires some on her own.

The part about finding a good attorney: from what I've seen, most attorneys know how to handle their own state's exemptions. A NY attorney likely won't know much about TN exemptions. Her case may cost a bit more in attorney fees as a result, due to the extra work on the part of the attorney. She should certainly interview several attorneys and specifically ask about moving from one state to another, exemptions, etc.

[HHM]

Exemptions are not THAT difficult. Assets are assets and most exemptions schemes are fairly similar. It really only becomes a problem when you have some out of the ordinary asset, some strange exemption, or some very restrictive interpretation of an exemption.

Your friend needs to get her own advice from an attorney in NY, but generally, she can file in NY after living there for 91 days and would use NY median income numbers.
However, she will not be eligible to use NY exemptions. To muddy the waters a little more, she might not be able to use TN's exemptions, most states restrict the use of their exemptions to actual residents. So, if she moves to NY with the intent to stay there, she will no longer be a resident of TN. In most cases, that means she gets defaulted to Federal Exemptions. So, the issue is, does TN allow non-residents to use it's exemptions (I don't know the answer off hand).

[aaj67]

Exemptions are not THAT difficult. Assets are assets and most exemptions schemes are fairly similar. It really only becomes a problem when you have some out of the ordinary asset, some strange exemption, or some very restrictive interpretation of an exemption.

Your friend needs to get her own advice from an attorney in NY, but generally, she can file in NY after living their for 91 days and would use NY median income numbers.
However, she will not be eligible to use NY exemptions. To muddy the waters a little more, she might not be able to use TN's, most states restrict the use of their exemptions to actual residents. So, if she moves to NY with the intent to stay there, she will no longer be a resident of TN. In most cases, that means she gets defaulted to Federal Exemptions. So, the issue is, does TN allow non-residents to use it's exemptions (I don't know the answer off hand).

Thank you so much, you've answered my question. She really doesn't have assets, she just have an old car.

[aaj67]

That is my understanding. She can research the residency requires some on her own.

The part about finding a good attorney: from what I've seen, most attorneys know how to handle their own state's exemptions. A NY attorney likely won't know much about TN exemptions. Her case may cost a bit more in attorney fees as a result, due to the extra work on the part of the attorney. She should certainly interview several attorneys and specifically ask about moving from one state to another, exemptions, etc.

That's a great advice. She most definitely needs to find a good attorney in NY. They don't charge that much for chapter 7, I think she will be okay.