dependents/college students

[carolen]

If your dependent children are in college and the irs recognizes them as your dependents as they have no income, and you are supporting them 100 percent, why is there ever a question as them being your dependent for chapter 13 filing?

[RunningMan]

It is frustrating for me also. I have an 18 year old daughter living at home. She is going to start college in April as she messed up her application for the fall. They seem to consider supporting adult aged children a luxury and not a necessity.

[carolen]

Have you actually been told you cannot claim her? If we have to use irs guidelines for everything else I don't understand.

[RunningMan]

Yes, the trustee told us that at the 341 hearing. We were just claiming her as a dependent and no college expenses. Some other people on the board have had different experiences, so it may depend on your trustee. Our attorney had also put a phantom car payment in our plan since we only have one car payment which the trustee said was no longer allowed. In the end, he asked that our payment go up by about $20 more than the phantom car payment although he originally said it should be $1000 more than that. There is a recent discussion on college expenses here:

http://www.bkforum.com/showthread.php?67423-Need-input.-RE-College-Expenses

[carolen]

I see you are in California so which trustee are you under? and I am sorry I don't understand even though I have read the new car rulings. We do have a car payment, and we own 2 additional vehicles. So are we no longer able to deduct the expenses associated with the maintenance of the owned vehicles or no longer able to deduct our car payment? and when you are speaking of your daughter as a dependent are you speaking from the point of the means test?

[RunningMan]

We are in the California Central District (Riverside court). Your car payment is still a legitimate expense. Our attorney had put a second phantom car payment in since we only had one payment and are allowed two. That was disallowed. Maintenance expenses for your cars and house are allowed to an extent. I was not talking about the means test, I was talking about calculating your disposable monthly income (DMI) for determining your payment amount.

[despritfreya]

You misunderstand the concept of a Chapter 13. As Pandora and others pointed out in a recent thread I posted (dealing with a Chapter 11 but, as it turns out, under the same concept as the 13), diverting $$ from your creditors to put your children through college, while admirable, may not be “necessary for the maintenance or support of the debtor or a dependant of the debtor" under 11 U.S.C. 1325(b)(2)(A), and there are many reported cases that support this both pre and post BAPCPA.

With the ability to get grants and scholarship, the ability of a college age child to get a part-time job and the ability to choose a less expensive education over a more expensive one, a debtor can limit the amount of $$ they divert. The amount allowed to be diverted, if any, is determined on a case-by-case basis.

You will have to either reduce the amount spent (shown on Schedule J) to a level all will agree upon or you will have to prove to the Judge that what you are spending still allows you to meet the "best interest of the creditors" test of Section 1325.

Des.