Calculating Chapter 13 Plan

[lawforever]

I want to know if someone can give me an instruction how to calculate Chapter 13 Plan by hand? I don't want to use a computer to calculate it for me. Can someone please provide that for me?

Thank you.

[newbie2]

Do a google search for "US Bankruptcy court". One of the first links to pop up will be for the main court.

On it they have all the forms that are needed to file. Print those out and go through them line by line.

[SMinGA]

Basics, as I understand it:

Are you over your state's median income based on family size? If yes, you will have a 60 month plan. If no, you may have 36 or 60.

The plan payment basically is the difference between net pay and actual and/or allowable expenses. Don't count payments for any debt that will be in your plan. Such as if your district requires your car payment to be included - you won't make a separate car payment. If your net income is $5100 per month and net expenses are $4100, you'll have a $1000 plan payment.

If below the median, to figure out 36 or 60 you need to figure out if your plan payment can pay all that is required in 36 months. If its all unsecured/non-priority, there is no 'minimum'. If you have mortgage arrears, or if your car loan will be paid off in the plan then those amounts must be paid in full. I'm not sure about taxes - no personal experience there. If part of your atty's fee is to be paid in the plan, then that factors into the 'minimum' also.

So for an example. Say you have $10,000 in mortgage arrears and a car loan with a balance of $8,000 that will be paid in the plan. No other priority, so $18,000 is the minimum amount to be paid to creditors. The trustee takes a portion of all that is paid in, it varies from 5-10% by district. Lets assume worst case scenario of 10%. If your plan payment is $500 per month, then after the trustee fee $450 goes to your plan. $450 x 36 = $16,200. So even if you were below the median, you would not be able to do a 36 month plan as it would not fully pay off your mortgage arrears AND car loan. You could do a 60 month instead ($450 x 27 = $27,000) and after your mortgage arrears/vehicle were paid then the rest would go to unsecured.