$200 Donations on Sch. I

[fas917]

My Atty put charitable contribution for $200 to bring my disposable income to $31 but she made entertainment/recreations to $0.

Do you think trusty will flag this and push for Chp 13? I am little concerned as she is going to file on Friday. Please let me know your thoughts.

Thanks.

[AngelinaCatHub]

Ask her to add $50 bucks or so for entertainment. That is a fair amount as loosly defined you could spend an easy 50 on Blockbusters alone. 'Hub

[JRScott]

In many jurisdictions you are allowed up to 10% charitable donations as an expense.

At the same time some don't like entertainment expenses, he could be adjusting to account for local quarks of the trustees.

[Cali]

My attorney said to keep entertainment at the lower end.

[CountryGirl]

Charity is an allowable expense when reading the Trustee's handbook. I do not however recall the amount.................

[laurannm]

I think I also read somewhere that while it is allowable, it needs to be historical...meaning you may be asked to provide docs that show you have been donating for quite some time, and didn't just start it a few weeks before filing

[happy_ira]

How much is your monthly income as listed on Sched I?

As someone pointed out, "Tithing" up to 10% is not unheard of, but that's a bit much. So, $200 out of $____ is not at all outrageous. Charitable donations of 5% (or less off) of Income is very reasonable. So, as long as your monthly Income is $4,000 or more, I think you are fine. (If your income is higher and the $200 is an even smaller percent, fine as well).

[Cali]

I agree w/ Laura you do have to have paperwork to back your donations.

[Scott50]

My Atty put charitable contribution for $200 to bring my disposable income to $31 but she made entertainment/recreations to $0.

Do you think trusty will flag this and push for Chp 13? I am little concerned as she is going to file on Friday. Please let me know your thoughts.

Thanks.

are you making charitable contributions of $200 a month?

[Cali]

Scott50 - the attorney could be trying to make sure there isn't too much money in one category and not enough in another.

[danaf]

If it were my petition, I'd split the amount - $100 for entertainment, $100 for charitable donations. I personally put down $90 misc. in mine which was allowable and which I found out about by going to the bk office to research other bks free on pacer. BUT - your attorney must know how the trustees in your area work. So keep that in mind.

[stephenm]

By federal guide lines, charitable donations are allowed up to 15% of your gross income. This is something they can ask for proof of so you need to be able to show you've done this for the last 6 months. My two years of tax returns already showed me giving 10% so it wasn't questioned.

danaf is right. If you have a good lawyer, they will know what numbers won't cause issues. Several of my numbers were put down lower then the actual amount just so we wouldn't be asked for extra documentation.

Oh, and mine had me for $0 in clothing which I wanted changed since I'm thinking I'll want new cloths in the next 5 years. I don't think we changed it since I was negative on the means test but not by some silly amount to raise questions.

I'm $20K over median and 6 weeks away from discharge.

[Cali]

stepehnm - We didn't put 0 on anything because the attorney said it wasn't a good idea. We did adjust a few things to make lower amounts in some areas.