trustee objection after 341?

[kangarooz77]

I am freaking out a little bit and need some info. I got a letter in the mail from my lawyer with a copy of a letter he got from the trustee. My 341 hearing took less than 5 minutes, we were in and out. Now, he has three objections??

Ojection 1: I claimed medical expenses of $550/month. that is legit and I probably end up spending more than that. am i going to have to get notes from doctors or provide the information on my perscriptions? i don't really want strangers to know all about my health issues.

Objection 2: i am in a 5 year plan, and paying my car outside of the plan. my car will be paid off in 4 years, $440/month. once the car is paid off, with 1 year left in the plan, he wants me to add the $440/month to my 13 payment. but by that time, my car will have something like 140,000 miles on it, if it even makes it that far. i am sure i will need a new car by then, how does this make sense?

Objection 3: in my plan i am not required to turn in my tax return paperwork every year. my tax return from last year was super high, $5600, because i had energy tax credits (new furnace, windows, central air). he is saying that i either have to agree to turn over my tax refunds every year, or divide $5600 by 12 and add that to my monthly 13 payment. there is no way my refund will be anywhere near that for this year, it will be much less if i get anything at all. is there a way to keep this from happening?

why didn't all of this come up during the 341 hearing? i am super stressed and am about to have an anxiety attack. my payments are already $1150/month. if they go up I am completely screwed.

i was originally going to do a 100% plan to pay the unsecured credit cards, but then my lawyer said it would work better if I included my student loans in the plan, so i have no idea what percentage i am paying now. i have so many student loans, i will have to keep paying them after the case is discharged.

would it be better for me to pay the student loans outside of the plan, and do a 100% plan to avoid this payment going up so much? the 100% payment would be around $1300/month, which is better than the $1625 it would be if i have to divide up the tax return and add it to my payments, plus then later adding on the $440. ugh!!

[HHM]

This is standard operating procedure. The 341 is fairly mechanical, the real action in a chapter 13 now starts, between the 341 and confirmation.

1. Yes, you will need to PROVE the medical.

2. Standard objection, trustee will win on it. You amend the plan, but in year 4, you petition to get a another car with the same payment.

3. Standard objection, if you won't be getting refunds, why do you care, agree to turn over the tax returns.

[LadyInTheRed]

No. 1, to prove the medical expenses, you shouldn't need to disclose the details of your medical care. If you don't have invoices without medical info, talk to your attorney about redacting them or ask your doctor and/or pharmacist for a statement listing your payments.

Another option for no 2 is to average the 12 months worth of car payments over the entire 60 months which will increase your payment by $88. Not sure why you'd want to do that instead of modify later as HHM suggests, but I thought I'd throw it out there to point out that this is a negotiation. You presented your plan, the trustee's letter is basically a counter offer, now it's your turn to counter offer. Call your attorney to discuss how best to proceed.

Dont pay 100% to unsecured creditors when you can pay the student loan down instead.

[Pandora]

We have excessive medical as well - and as HHM and Lady have stated, you do not need to disclose your actual medical situation, however you will need to provide heavy documentation as to actual expenses.

It was fairly easy to obtain, you can call your health insurance provider and request a print out of all medical visits for your entire family for the year - it will have all copays, etc on it. If your RX's are separate from your main insurance as most are now a days, you call up your RX number from your provider (same provider for ins. just different phone number if thats the case) and request the same thing; all copays for the year for each person. Dont forget to include any deductibles you may have to pay in for both family and RX's for the year - those count . You can also call up your local pharmacy and have them print out a yearly claim for each person in your family - but if you use mail order - that can only come from your ins. company.

Our trustee approved $300 a month for our medical - in addition to what our health insurance was, so dont fret too much.

[momofthree]

With medical that high, you may have been able to deduct it on your tax return. If so, then simply pointing to it on your taxes may be sufficient.

And as a pp mentioned, if this tax refund was a 1-time shot, then it should be no big deal to hand over your future refunds.

[ColoradoBell]

LOL...my attorney told me it is the trustees JOB to object so don't worry about it. Of course my attorney also suggested that paying more means the trustee gets more and I should consider that to get my plan concerned. (Heck no, if I'm going to go the bribery route, I'll do it under the table, not in the plan.) So join the club and lets all hope we come out of this alive!

EVERYBODY has objected to my plan...the trustee says I have way too much DMI and must pay a lot more, and my creditors all say I don't have enough money to fund a plan, so the 13 should be dismissed. And my lawyer says she wants MORE than the 10k I've agreed to pay her....WTF?

So...life is very Alice in Wonderland for me these days. I'm not much muchier thanI was before.

[kangarooz77]

Thanks everyone. I am really frazzled by this whole process, and for my health, I just need it to be over. The tax return thing irritates me because I specifically asked my lawyer about that multiple times and he said there was no way they would come back and take my tax returns. I just wasn't expecting this. I was hoping that maybe one or two of the years I would get a really small refund and could save it for a down payment when my car dies. Thanks for your responses.

[momofthree]

Thanks everyone. I am really frazzled by this whole process, and for my health, I just need it to be over. The tax return thing irritates me because I specifically asked my lawyer about that multiple times and he said there was no way they would come back and take my tax returns. I just wasn't expecting this. I was hoping that maybe one or two of the years I would get a really small refund and could save it for a down payment when my car dies. Thanks for your responses.

If your plan is set up properly and you stick to a strict budget, then you will be able to save money each month even without your tax refunds. Good luck and keep us posted on your progress.