Tax Refund and Post341 Responsibilities

[Delilah216]

To the point, I remembered after spending the small state refund (under $150) that I was supposed to let the Trustee know of any refunds (per a letter I recieved after discharge date). I have a $2900 refund coming in from my federal and is due anyday now. Since the BK 7 was filed in June and discharged in Oct. of 2004. Do I need to inform the trustee? I am only getting $310 of this as actual "earned" income refund the rest is Earned Income Credit for care of my teenager.

[EdytaHome]

I can't belive that they could still ask you for your future tax refunds, expecially since you were discharged in 2004. Is this correct, they actually want your refund almost 6 months after discharge...

[HHM]

Edyta, she filed in 2004 and it is the 2004 tax refund the trustee is after, so its not really "future" tax refund.

I am not sure how the trustee's deal with the EIC, but the Trustee would take roughly half your refund (based on the date you filed in June, i.e. 6 months into 2004).

[EdytaHome]

So, if I filed in Jan 05, would the trustee want my 2005 or 2006 tax refund if it came down to it.
What if the trustee filed a "no asset" report, does this mean he doesn't want the refund?

[rhonda0503]

We filed in 2004, dischg 1/17/05 "no asset" and our bk case closed 1/25/05. We never rec'sd any letter or mention at 341 meeting about turning our 2004 refunds over so I called the trustee personally and was told yes I need to turn over refundsto him and then he will calculate how much we will receive. He was very nice and I would suggest for anyone unsure, call the trustee and ask. We were told from our lawyer that if we didn't comply, our bk decision can be overturned.

[HHM]

Yeah, I can't stress this point enough, and I think I have mentioned it in several threads....

Your Discharge DOES NOT end your bankruptcy case. Further, the "closed" entry that appears within a week or so of the Discharge is merely a clerical designation entered by the court clerk. Your case does not legally close until 1 year after entry of the Discharge.

Although for the most part, after your discharge, your life goes on as normal (i.e. you can get new credit without court permission, purchase big ticket items, etc etc), you still have continueing duties to the BK court (and the Trustee).

The main two things you have to do during the 1 year post discharge period is
1. Keep the court up-to-date if you move (file a change of address)
2. Supply the Trustee with copies of your Tax "Return" for the year you filed. (Incidently, this will mean that those of you who have filed in 2005, will have to send to the Trustee your 2005 Tax Return when you do your taxes in early 2006).

The trustee will most likely NOT send you a reminder.

[Pumpkin729]

The year after discharged

HHM.... you wrote:

Your Discharge DOES NOT end your bankruptcy case. Further, the "closed" entry that appears within a week or so of the Discharge is merely a clerical designation entered by the court clerk. Your case does not legally close until 1 year after entry of the Discharge.

Questions:

Does this go for all BK's?
What if you paid 100% into your BK does this still apply?

[freshstartinmo]

Thanks for posting this, this really clarifies things for me!

[rberhow]

HHM-I am so confused after reading your explanation of responsibilities. When I asked our lawyer if we needed to give the court a copy of our 2004 tax return or if there was any involvement of our refund, he said no. The trustee never said anything about our future responsibilities at our 341 meeting in 5-04 except to notify the court of any address change and we were discharged in 7-04. Does this differ from state to state? I would hope my lawyer would know if this was something expected in all bk cases but I have also learned that it is best to question.

[rhonda0503]

returns

We're in NY. Our lawyer mentioned that we would have to turn over 2004 tax returns in our very first meeting with him. The only thing the trustee ever mentioned in our 341 mtg is if we expected a refund, we replied yes and nothing further was said about it. When we filed our taxes, I called our lawyer to see if we still needed to turn our refunds and he said yes. I asked this question on this site and another site and was told yes on this site and no on the other site. I wanted to do the right thing cuz according to the lawyer if we didn't turn over taxes, trustee can overturn bk decision. I came this far so I wouldn't want to go back to square one! So after getting mixed answers, I called the trustee myself. He said yes, we needed to turn them over. We will get a portion back. I'm not turning over willingily, but I want to get this over with & on with my life. I don't want it to bite me in the butt 6 months down the road. Now with that being said, I also know other people that filed & never turned over their taxes. My uncle is in Texas, he's filed twice now and neither time turned over his refunds. My friend, here in NY, filed and she didn't turn over refund. My cousin in PA didn't turn hers in either.
I would like to ask the question, why do some have to and some don't? I just wanted to pay my property taxes with mine. The trustee could have the balance I really didn't care just as long as my taxes got paid so I don't lose my home. But oh well, I guess I just have 3 years of taxes to pay for next year.

[HHM]

What you will have to turn over is a copy of your TAX "RETURNS". Once the trustee takes a look it, he/she will then decide whether or not to ask for the refund. But it also depends on your individual circumstances. If it appears from the petition you didn't have much income from in 2004, the trustee may not care to see your tax returns.

Your lawyer is on the ground in your state, so I would hope they would know.