questions about filing and marital status

[jinx]

We are not married but have been living together for 8 years and we have two kids. we keep our money separate but in we file for federal income taxes as married.

Her credit cards and vehicle are paid by her and not in trouble. The house is in my name only as are my two cars. my issue is credit card debt. I had a 50% loss of income in the past 8 months.


--Would I be able to file ch13 (or maybe even ch7) and keep her out of it?

--how would the expenses work out? I pay the mortgage, utilities and all my own debts. she buys groceries and misc stuff and pays her own debts.

I ask because I dug this hole and she did not and I don't want to drag her down with me....

[woeisme]

if you are living together, both incomes (and expenses) are taken into account when determining the disposable income. You can file just on your own, it won't hurt her credit, but you will have to work together to budget while in your CH 13. And I know you say the debt is all yours, but are you sure that you didn't dig this hole by trying to pay all the bills yourself? It may be all in your name, and it's admirable that you want to protect her, but with a 50% loss in income, maybe it's time for her to step up to the plate and participate more equally in paying the bills since she is your partner. Just a thought.

[jinx]

Thanks for the information.

Even with both of our incomes factored in and expenses determined by the means test we are in negative disposeable income. We do not want to get rid of any assets other than a truck we still owe on which is why i'm looking at ch13. Being that we both pay expenses but keep our debts separate and all the major debts are in my name I figured why ruin both of our credit if we do not have to.

Our marital situation is a little more complicated than stated above.... I'll just leave it at that

[woeisme]

A CH 13 is going to be tricky with negative disposable income, you're going to have to convince the trustee and possibly the judge that you are going to be able to fund the plan, which only works if your expenses are less than the national standards used on the means test so you can claim $ to fund the plan even if the test says no. The other biggie is that the CH 13 has to pay your creditors at least as much as they would have received had you been forced into a CH 7 liquidation, so if you have a lot of non-exempt assets, you need to be able to pay the creditors at least as much as their worth. Good luck!