Chap 13 wife going back to work!?!

[brokeNconfused]

Ok.. here it is . I am one year into my chap 13 plan. I am 3 years at $250month. It does not leave much at end of month and i actually qualified at the time for a chapter 7, but opted for the chap 13 (long story).

When we did this i had to bring up my disposable income up low balling the means test with my expenses. Obviously that made it hard over the last year.

My wife has since been offered a part time job. It will only be 20 hours a week and not likley more than 12-15 dollars an hour. i know some of the income will go to payments, but i had some other questions.

#1 will the trustee make me enter into a 5 year plan now?
#2 Can i re-do means test with expenses and bring them up to the allowable amount listed? (i went a bit under to get the 13 in first place)
#3 Can we add childcare into this?
#4 will i have to go back to court, or is this something my attorney can handle? (they are not returning my calls)
#5 are there any ther pitfalls i am missing?

I understand majority will go to payments, but wife really needs the time out of the house. That alone i think will do her some good. At this the time I filed my wife was not working and it was just me filing. what will they need from her now if she is working? Credit report? or just her check stubs?

I know there is a lot, but i really need to make this decision well informed unlike my decision to originally file the13.

Trustee now does not look at my bank statement or tax returns. Only wanted to be informed of income increases of more than 10%. A part time job will bring in at least 25% more.

thanks in advance for any help you can give.

[brokeNconfused]

anyone?

[Flamingo]

Comply with your Trustee's request and submit the income information for your wife. If you don't, you may face dismissal. Even though you do not have to submit your yearly tax returns on a regular basis after filing to the Trustee, the Trustee can ask for them at any time. If her having a part-time job generates day care expenses, those will also have to be submitted but will the cost of daycare outweigh her working out of the home?

[rrockinggramma]

do you send in your taxes each year to the trustee? If so, then let them catch it and see what they do. I suspect nothing will change for you. congrats to your wife for being able to find part time employment in this economy.

[woeisme]

When we had a change in income, our lawyer resubmitted our entire plan, making changes to expenses as well as to income, as both had changed, including child care costs. (We were in opposite situation, income went down but we no longer needed child care.) So yes, the entire schedule can be reworked and submitted as a "motion to modify plan." I thought our lawyer might charge extra for this, but she did not, just filed it after a brief phone call conversation, and am just a few days away from the 30-day wait for the judge to rule on it, but the trustee already indicated there were no objections from him.

[rrockinggramma]

but this op income would increase and he is concerned about it causing an increase in his plan payments. But my feeling is that since wife is only going to work part time, the money is not enough to raise the eyebrows of the trustee on the tax return unless this trustee is a real bear to work with and has the staff that nit picks every tax return. I think that for the extra 150 a week in income the trustee would gain little for the creditors

[larryrose]

Did you file BK jointly? This would make a big difference. I would get your attorney to review your income and expenses asap. Personally I would not contact the trustee until I knew where I stood so you are able to present a good case for keeping her small income.

[aa06a47]

I'd let sleeping dogs lie....Chances are, if you fudged to get into a chapter 13, the extra few hundred a month would not mean anymore to the creditors....

[woeisme]

You CAN up some of your expenses in your new paperwork to modify your plan, provided that they are still reasonable. You can include childcare, heck, we modified ours to include a car payment that was not in the original plan. I'd much rather do things out in the open with the trustee by properly doing the paperwork than try to do something without their knowledge that could come back to bite you in the rear later. You need to have a change in circumstance to modify the plan, sounds like you have that, so sit down with your lawyer and hash out an advantageous motion so that you get to keep the extra income on the up-and-up. good luck!

[brokeNconfused]

so would i stay in a 3 year plan or will he make me convert to 5 years? i think our state and district requrie 6500 a month median before you have to file a 13, i am well under that by about 700 a month. I estimate my wife grossing no more than 1,500 a month. We desperately need to increase our grocery allowance and will have to add child care. Since i had to cut money in order to bring up my disposable income to $250 min a month for the plan i am hoping a part time job does not change my plan at all. Considering childcare will be about $500 and i am no where near the allowable amounts for other things like food and utillities. Does all this make sense?

Guess my questions now are. Will my plan change from a 3 year to a 5 year?
With over time i make 36,000 every six months, but OT is not guranteed.
Wife will bring in at most 9,000 every six months. This is all a gross, not net, estimate
so with a total GROSS income of 45,000 over 6months puts me just barely over the median.

I plan on keeping attorney informed. They can do what they want, but i dont want to lose this in court for not keeping them informed.

As far as filing jointly, no we did not. she had a bankrupsy before we married that was not off her report yet. So she was included, but not joint.

[CH33 Paralegal]

Take the new income info to your attorney. If you were lowballing your expenses in order to generate a trustee payment, then it shouldn't be a problem to spend that money. It's really a situation where there was not enough money to make ends meet and your wife returned to work to help try to.

I'll bet most of that money can go to food and gas expense. Especially because now your wife has to drive more to go to work. Think about the basic things you were going without and the budget can allocate that new money to those things.

If you're under the median, then there really should't be a way you get forced into a 60 mo ACP. If you have excess income at the end of the month after reasonable expenses though, that disposable income should be given to the unsecured creditors.

Your attorney can help you with your budget. Without knowing all the specifics, I don't think that new income will send your payments up. If it was like pulling teeth to find yor trustee payment out of your budget, then this reinforces my thoughts

[brokeNconfused]

well it has not been easy to make payments, but we are only spending about 400 a month on groceries for a family of 5.

I will be just barely over median and dont want to have to convert to a 5 year plan now.

Also. with a modification will i have to go back to court or will my attorney be able to handle this alone?

[whipster1]

The confirmed plan was 3 years, so unless you go way above the median I doubt if the trustee will try to modify your plan to 5 years. Remember you can use the IRS standards for your family size, and food alone is over 500 per month for a 2 person family.

[brokeNconfused]

Will I have to return to court on this, or is it an issue the attorney can handle alone?