Middle Florida- tax refund after discharge

[Florida7]

I filed for chapter 7 with my Attorney in September of last year, and the case was discharge at the end of December. We are still awaiting the trustee appraisal negotiation process, which I though would be finished before the official discharge date, but we still have not heard back. My lawyer has advised me to wait to file taxes this year until he approves, I'm concerned that since the trustee has not determined what if anything should be paid for assets, that the trustee also has access to my tax refunds. Anyone have any advice or experience in this matter? I'm getting mixed information online.

[justbroke]

If you filed in September 2019 and it's now January 2020, the Trustee will likely be interested in 2/3rds of any potential tax refund... unless you exempted it. The likelihood that you're able to exempt any sizeable tax refund in Florida is a non-starter. Florida has horrible exemptions especially if you are protected a homestead.

Your attorney asked you to wait because your case is an asset case and is still open. Some portion, or all, of your Tax Year 2019 federal refund could be property of the bankruptcy estate.

It doesn't sounds like mixed information. The attorney seems to be telling you to wait so that they can understand the other issues with the Trustee. To me, it appears that the Trustee is trying to sell some property and that makes you an asset case. So your attorney wants to proceed with caution.

[Florida7]

They've determined my assets have come to about $3K. Will the taxes taken go towards what I have to pay towards the trustee determined $3K? This process is taking forever, cant wait for it to be over with.

[justbroke]

I can't tell but your attorney should be able to provide you with the amount. The reason I can't tell is I don't know how that $3K value was determined. That could be the $3K in property that you could not exempt "prior" to the income tax refund. You could owe the $3K plus the 2/3rds of your non-exempt refund, or it could just be the $3K. Unfortunately I do not know how they reached that figure.