wage exemption in florida

[sunshine93]

I have a question about the wage exemption in Florida. What does it mean exactly that $750 / week for up to 6 months deposited into a bank account is exempt? Does that mean that you can have $18000 approx when you file and keep it? Or does that pertain to after filing? I'm sure it is a simple answer I just can't seem to find it!

Tia

[justbroke]

I have never tried to use wage exemption because, literally, most debtors filing bankruptcy are just flat broke and don't have $18,000 laying around in a bank account.

You can use F.S. 222.11 to attempt to exempt up to 75% of your wages. However, if you only make $100/week, you can't have $18,000 in the bank. The statute would protect 75% of $100 or $75/week for 6 months. In order to protect the entire $750, according to the statute, you would need to earn $1,000/week or $52,000 a year to max it out.

I don't know if any Trustee would attack the debtor on a "bad faith" objection if the debtor had $18,000 in the bank and didn't want to try to pay creditors.

Since having $18,000 in cash from wages in your bank account upon filing bankruptcy is such an outlier, that I wouldn't guess about this. The cash must be traceable (dollar for dollar) to wages only. If it's mixed with a non-debtor's wages, that would complicate any exemption. Expect the Trustee to look at every single debit and credit to make sure the account is not manipulated.

Bottom line, if you're exemption wages held in a bank account in Florida then use the exemption for "up to" 75% of your normal weekly earnings for up to 6 months. But, that money from 6 months ago, should have always been there. You can't just, for example, receive $10K from someone, put it into your direct deposit account, and then claim it's wages from the last 6 months (even if it does equal what you would have earned and would have been deposited in that account).

(Also, take note that the "up to" $750 limit is for a head-of-household only. If you don't meet that definition, as defined in the Florida statute, this exemption does not apply. It is meant to protect families.)

[sunshine93]

Thanks! It will actually be more like $2000 as not paying unsecured debt for a few months will actually leave us with a bit of extra cash. I was just curious how that worked