Adding debt to a chapter 13.

[Hyppie_Chick]

Can a person add state income taxes to their plan that they incurred while in the chapter 13?

[krielly]

Not unless they were incurred before you filed your Chapter 13 petition. Any debt incurred since that time cannot be added.

[kmb]

What if you owe federal or state taxes that are based off of income incurred last year, when you filed? Can you amend to include taxes if you owe them for 2007?

[HHM]

Yes, if the taxes are for tax year 2007 and you filed your chapter 13 this year (2008), then you can conceivably put those 2007 taxes into your chapter 13 plan.

[kmb]

What if you filed in 2007 and the taxes are for 2007? Can they also be included?

[HHM]

Has your plan been confirmed?

And when in 2007 did you file?

[kmb]

Plan was filed on 5/29/07 and confirmed 11/04/07. Started doing TurboTax and found I'll owe about $800 in federal taxes, and of course I don't have "savings" figured into my very tight budget, since my trustee took every cent of cushion I had.

[krielly]

Not sure if you could include it or not (partial year filing perhaps). The problem is, even if you COULD include it, it would only be up to the date of filing, which would mean only about 5/12 of your total due for 2007 could be included, which would mean only about $300 or so. The bulk of it, I don't believe could be included. Others can jump in here and correct me if I'm wrong.
Have you thought about working out some type of payment plan with the IRS?

[HHM]

Not sure if you could include it or not (partial year filing perhaps). The problem is, even if you COULD include it, it would only be up to the date of filing, which would mean only about 5/12 of your total due for 2007 could be included, which would mean only about $300 or so. The bulk of it, I don't believe could be included. Others can jump in here and correct me if I'm wrong.
Have you thought about working out some type of payment plan with the IRS?

I agree with that analysis. It would be one thing if you were NOT confirmed, or you filed in October 2007 or later, but since you are already confirmed and you filed back in May, I think the ship has sailed on your ability to include 2007 taxes in your chapter 13.

[kmb]

I would do a payment plan with the IRS, but is the trustee going to let me? The IRS charges exorbitant finance charges and late fees for not paying what is owed by April 15th, which essentially is taking on new debt (and not good debt). Or, does the IRS waive those fees if you're in a current BK?

[mcdulph]

If you are giving the trustee "every cent" and coming up short on your income tax withholding, why not try to get the plan amended? Your plan is supposed to take all taxes into account.

This might not help for 2007, but you're going to need to consider your taxes going forward, too.

And I'm pretty sure you should be able to include the portion of your 2007 taxes that you "incurred" before filing into your Chapter 13. Hey, maybe your trustee will be a human being and let you include them all--it can't hurt to ask.

Good luck!