transportation ownership/lease expense

[callies]

I'm a little confused! I am filling out the Nolo Means test and it states that I can claim 489 for each of our vehicles, however I read on here the following....



"transportation ownership/lease expense; This is the expense for either owning or leasing a vehicle. The amount is determined by subtracting your payment on the vehicle by the deduction amount of $489 and the result can't be less than zero. The ruling in most districts is that you can only take this if you are currently making payments on the vehicle"

Is this true????

[momofthree]

Looks like this varies by the court.

There is a split among courts as to whether a debtor may claim a vehicle ownership deduction in the absence of any loan or lease payments. As explained by a recent case, In re Ransom, 380 B.R. 799, 803-06 (9th Cir. BAP 2007), cases on both sides rely on a plain language argument. Both arguments review the language "applicable monthly expenses" in juxtaposition to "actual monthly expenses" to attempt to determine the meaning of the means test. No circuit court has addressed this issue.

source: http://doney.net/bkcases/US-10_Cir-B...re_Pearson.htm

This was back in 2007 though, they may have a more definitive answer now. I'll keep looking, though maybe someone else knows off the top of their head...

[momofthree]

Here is a really great means test that fills in the values for you, and it allows the expense whether you have payments or not.

Just scroll to the very top & plug in your zip code and info and it calculates everything out for you. EAsiest one I've seen so far...

http://www.legalconsumer.com/bankruptcy/bankruptcy-means-test.php?ZIP=61349&ST=IL&CBSA=36860&FEDCT=ILC&CITY=OHIO&METRO=Ottawa-Streator%2C+IL#Part5B