Last year of chap 13 questions

[adargie]

I have just emailed my lawyer with these same questions but was hoping for some insight from fellow 13ers

Our case was filed 7/2010 and confirmed 11/2010. We are in Michigan. I received our yearly statement from the trustee and am concerned. We pay 1650 a month and it looks like we still have 18k to pay in, now if we are to stay at 60 months theres no way we would be done be even 11/2015 (even tho I started paying 8/2010) at the payment amount we are at now. I assumed we were in our last 7 payments if they are calling my august payment the start.

When we began, our payment was 400 for the first 2 years. My husband gets paid on strict commission, his income went up significantly over 2 years and or payment quadrupled. Does this mean we will have to pay longer than 60 payments?

My lawyer is extremely difficult to get ahold of and that is why I am asking here for some knowledge regarding this. I will be sick if we have to pay into 2016, as of now we are paying 71% because of my husbands income, whats hard is with it being commission based we never know what he will make, we have been very fortunate to be able to keep up this payment for this long. Thanks Andrea

[LadyInTheRed]

Your plan cannot go past the 60 months. In screwy Michigan, that begins at confirmation. If your plan is for a certain amount per month for 60 months after confirmation, then that is all that should be required to complete your plan. Does the order confirming or modifying your plan specify any requirements other than your monthly payment?

I just received my annual statement and there is no indication of how much I have left to pay. Does yours specifically indicate a balance due from you? If not, how are you determining that you have $18k left to pay? If you are calculating 71% of the unpaid portion of the claims, that is not the way to know what is necessary to complete your plan. The percentage is an estimate.

[adargie]

I went to NDC and added up the max payout amounts then subtracted what we have already paid in, and divided that by our payment amount that comes out to 8.6 which would take us to august. Does that sound right?
Honestly we were told very little of how this whole 13 works besides the fact that we could put tax debt in there and that's why we did it. I have no idea what our set amount is other than what I see on NDC and our statements we receive. Other than that I get no correspondence from my lawyer. I have had to research most of my questions online because getting ahold of my lawyer is very difficult. Thank you for your response.

[LadyInTheRed]

I don't know what you mean by "max payout amounts". There is no such term in my NDC account. NDC is not a reliable way to determine your obligations under your plan. But, assuming everything entered into NDC is correct, you should look at the plan base in the case summary, not the total amount of claims. But, that will only be helpful if the trustee's office updated the plan base when your payment increased. Not all trustees keep the information in NDC up to date. I have 4 months left in my plan, and much of the information in NDC was incorrect for my case until very recently. NDC is not a court record.

The reliable way to determine what is needed to complete your plan is to look at the order confirming your plan and, if your plan was modified to increase the payment, the order modifying your plan. If you don't have copies, call your lawyer's office and ask for copies or register for a PACER account so you can download them.

In a Chap 13, you must pay all of your disposable income to the plan. If you had tax debt, then your disposable income had to be high enough to pay your tax debt. Since you had an increase in income and your plan payments went up, I am guessing that your disposable income is more than enough to pay your tax debt. If you have made all of the payments required by your plan, then your plan should end 60 months after confirmation, or when 100% of claims and your trustee fee are paid, whichever happens sooner. You should not stop making payments until your attorney or your trustee tells you to stop.