How does your attorney calculate your monthly income?

[HLS]

I’m not sure exactly how to word this. What concerns me is I’ve been getting overtime in my paychecks, But overtime is not Guaranteed to stay. When they look at your paycheck, do they look at a straight 40 hour week and what you make per hour or does that extra overtime pay get into their calculations in determining your income

[justbroke]

It's mostly knowing what goes into calculating your income. The Means Test is the best start to calculate your income. Since you're in a Chapter 13 they must use an average of your income even if you have overtime. Otherwise, how would they know how much you earned and how would they collect that amount?

So, they are first going to look at your last 6-months of gross pay by adding up all of your pay advices for those months. They will then multiple by 2. They will then divide by 12. That's your average monthly income.

Please ask your attorney how they got to YOUR specific number. Please realize that most calculations will also include your income tax refund. They add that back into your income because you didn't actually owe the taxes; it was an overinflated expense. For certain types of tax credits (such as EITC) those won't be added back.

There is more to determining your income (and expenses) than just looking at 40 hours.