More Bankruptcy Questions

[Phoebers]

Hi again,

I was reading over the state income (mean) requirements and ohio is over $57,000 for a family of three. That would include my hubby, myself, and his son who is a dependent. Since he would be the one filing, would my income be considered into this factor. If not, his would definately be under. So if we were able to get the house current as well as the 2nd mortgage in a hurry, would this look bad if he tried for chapter 7? Would they ask where the money came from?

[SinkingFast]

If your Hubby is filing seperate of you and the son is his, then Hubby would use figures for a family of 2.

Your income will be included to start the Means Test, and then will be deducted out later.

[Phoebers]

Well, I think he is bit over for a family of two but I guess that is something that we can look further into once we consult with an attorney. Thanks!

[SinkingFast]

The Means Test has a bit of flexibility to it. Congress fashioned the whole New BK Law to favor Secured Debt. If you have house payments and/or car payments, those will come into play on the Means Test. You can be a bit over the Median on income and still pass the Means Test. It just means you'll have to go all the way thru the Means Test to prove it. If your income is below the Median, you get to stop at the top and check the "Presumption does not arise" box.

An attny will know better once he/she takes a look at your Hubby's numbers.

[Phoebers]

You've been a great help. I was reading something further on the means test and actually printed off the forms. I think hubby was relieved to find out that it was okay for his mom to pay off that other loan no matter which chapter he will file when the time comes. My brain has been going in a thousand different directions today with different scenarios. Like you said, we'll know more once we consult with a lawyer. At least that won't be a mystery to us since we will consult with the one that I used four years ago. The good thing is that there have been no big purchases or anything like that over the past few months. We might have to wait a month or so because hubby used to work a part-time job and that would show on his income. That's okay because we can get by for a little while longer and cut corners. It will also give us time to get the documents together that he will need to file. We have his W-2's but it seems that you have to get the tax returns straight from the IRS now. We have copies from H & R block for the past three years but we did his online and just have a print out. I guess that is something that we can discuss further. My husband is a pack rat so we have his pay stubs as well for the past three or four years.

[SinkingFast]

You can turn in your own copies of taxes you've files. If, for some reason, you didn't happen to have a year available, you could request a transcript from the IRS. You can even arrange for those to be sent directly to your attny, I believe.

You're wanting to keep the house, if I recall correctly.

If your deductions do bring Hubby in below the Median and he does file Ch 13, he could get as short as a 3 year plan. When you're over the Median, you're automatically placed in a 5 year plan.

On the pay stubs,......... You'll just need pay stubs from the previous 6 months as proof of income.

Each attny you Consult with will give you a list of docs they want to have on file. It took me several weeks, scrounging around, to gather everything together. And when we hired our attny, there was still a few things we didn't have. Every attny wants the same basic things and then they will all want different extra things as well.