Possible Dismissal

[fournee1]

I completed my last payment in October 2021. I continued to wait for any correspondence. Feb 4th, I get a call from my Atty and he says that the trustees filed to dismiss my case. I was angry. I asked him why and says because I did not turn in my 2020 taxes. He said we have gotten the previous 4 years but not this one. I actually forgot due to having Covid in December and I did not get a reminder from the law office(not really an excuse, but I have always gotten a reminder from them). Anyway, I filed taxes but I owed the IRS $600 so I did not get a federal tax return. So I forwarded this to the Atty on Friday. Yesterday I get a notice from the court stating that on the 10th the trustee is going before the judge to dismiss my case. I feel so defeated if this happens for i paid on time for 5 years. I just left a message for my Atty. I don't know what can be done now.

[justbroke]

I don't think you'll get a dismissal. Your attorney will attend the hearing on the 10th... OR... your attorney will contact the Chapter 13 Trustee and provide the 2020 Tax Return to the Trustee.

The only reason that your case is being dismissed is for cause; you didn't turn in your tax return to the Chapter 13 Trustee. Your attorney will fix this by immediately sending in a copy of your 2020 Tax Return to the Trustee. The Trustee will likely withdraw their motion to dismiss and/or your attorney will attend the hearing to have it withdrawn. The reason that it was dismissed for cause is because the Trustee can't tell if a.) your income increased and your payments should have increased, and/or b.) you received a refund which should have been surrendered to the Trustee.

Let your attorney handle this. I don't think it will be an issue unless your income had increased significantly -- and I can't define significant -- from 2019 to 2020. (Some say that "significant" is an increase in income greater than 10%.)

[flashoflight]

It's not a big deal. Just email a PDF of the 2020 tax return to your attorney TODAY, who will forward it to the trustee probably via email to the assistant trustee handling your dismissal. They will withdraw the dismissal before the hearing occurs and you will get your discharge. If somehow the judge approves the dismissal, you can still get it withdrawn before the clerk enters the order of dismissal but I wouldn't let it get that close.