Expected Tax Refund, what is smartest way to protect it in chp13 filing?

[johnjan2009]

I didn' paid mortgage entire year last year(2009) and therefore didn't get any tax refund... But this year, my loan got modified and started paying my mortgage again and therefore expecting some tax refunds at the end of the year... I'm also in a midst of providing assets to the atty I'm working with for chp13 and now I get stuck on how to calculate my expected tax refunds... Any tools you guys know that you can share with me on how to estimate tax refunds? Also, what is best strategy to protect this tax refund(if any) from being taken by trustee to pay your unsecured? My understanding from my atty is my plan will only cover my car, trustee admin and atty fees and nothing will go to unsecured like credit cards... I would love to hear from you all great people at bkforum and I will really appreciate it...

[free2breathe]

TurboTax has a pretty good free tax estimator on their site.

http://turbotax.intuit.com/microsite/tax-tools/?priorityCode=3468341816&cid=all_cjtto-1434610_int_3468341816&PID=1434610

[FishersMike]

From everything I have read here in my short time here -- Trustees can request tax refunds - it is their decision. Your attorney is incorrect as any disposable income you encounter during your 60 months will be paid to un-secured creditors - so if your Trustee in your district requires you to surrender your tax refund, it will be disbursed to your un-secured creditors.

[LadyInTheRed]

Ask your attorney if you can exempt the 2010 refund using the wildcard exemption. You may need to adjust your deductions on your schedule J to show lower withholding to reflect your actual ongoing tax liability, which will increase your income available for your plan payment. I don't know what CA district you are in, but my confirmation order in the Northern District did not require me to turn my tax refunds over to the trustee. That could be because my state refund usually just about covers what I owe to the IRS.

[momofthree]

CA has a very generous wildcard exemption. You can use it to exempt future tax refunds. We did, not that we actually expect a refund, but we didn't have any other use for the exemption, so the attorney figured we may as well use it for the tax refunds just in case, lol.

[johnjan2009]

thanks guys for the good advise..

[Thor]

I live in Nebraska and hubby & I usually get a small refund. We have asked our attorney twice (for clarification) if we can keep it and were told emphatically yes we can. Does it vary state to state then?

[lrprn]

Does it vary state to state then?

Yes, being allowed to keep all or part of your tax refund while in an active Ch 13 varies from trustee to trustee and from state to state. There's no consistency at all. Each Ch 13 filer has to ask his/her lawyer what to expect with his/her trustee.

Ch 13 is a great time to reconsider using Uncle Sam as a no-interest savings account. If your trustee is one that takes all refunds, then that makes it doubly important to keep as many $$ as possible throughout the year by adjusting withholdings (if your trustee allows that - some don't).

[hanna1981]

file your bankruptcy after you recieve your refund

[Thor]

We filed in April this year. We're interested in next year's refund, small tho it will probably be. Our attorney says no one will take it.