extra summer teaching and means test

[Moneypenny]

Hi,

I am paid for a 9-month workyear, although the payments are spread out over a 12 month period. My salary for my family puts me below the mean salary in CA, when i take any normal 6-month period of pay stubs (exactly the same every month of the year). I also can get extra salary for summer teaching, which is dispursed in two payments that are quite large, spaced about 3-4 weeks apart.

I want to file chapter 7, but it will be about 5 weeks till I get the first of these summer payments. Also, such summer pay shows up in my yearly IRS forms as part of overall year's income, which is over the means.

If i take six months where there is no summer teaching, i am below the means. will that work?

it is too late to not do this teaching this year. will anyone claim that i can do it next year if i want and that i cant file chapter 7?

thanks,

Moneypenny

[justbroke]

If i take six months where there is no summer teaching, i am below the means. will that work?

The Trustee's office will catch the discrepancy between your current monthly income calculation (the 6 months), and your IRS tax return. They will ask you questions about it. You will not be able to avoid the fact that while the CMI shows one thing, you actual "circumstances" shows another.

Why are you worried about it? Don't worry if it makes you over the median. You can pass the means test being over the median.

[Moneypenny]

thanks!

my badly worded question was, i realize that my yearly income is high because of the optional summer teaching. I started teaching my summer class already and cant change that. I didnt teach last year (or thats what i remember) so my 2008 income is not so bad. My question is not about whether they will notice (of course they will) but what will they make of it? Can they say, "you can do this summer work if you want in the future, so that is what we will consider as your income" (I have a come-back for that, but I was wondering whether they can even pose such things to me).

The second layer of the means test is a problem for me because we have been really scraping on everything: no documented childcare, clunker cars kept afloat by nextdoor neighbor mechanics, no cellphones, etc. our w-9 forms have too many deductions, and i have a super-low interest 40-year mortgage as well as home equity loans with interest-only payments. the latter is where we really get screwed on the means test as we pay very little for our secured housing debt (which we are re-affrimning).

thanks,

Moneypenny

[justbroke]

Are you saying that you don't pass the means test, or that you pass, but your expenses are barely allowing you to pass, and the additional income will blow everything out of the water.

What you earn is what you earn. The Trustee sees it all as income. They don't seem to distinguish much (even overtime). That's mainly because the Means Test is a very mechanical and mathematical test.

[Moneypenny]

i am worried that they will say that if i could earn that OT in the past, i can again in the future.

i will file 6 months out from my extra income, but am worried about the fact that even if i pass means test for six months prior, that potential to make more might come up

[justbroke]

I'm not saying it won't come up and I can't predict what your particular Trustee will see or do. Suffice it to say, that this is an area that you'll need to deal with by carefully planning and making sure you qualify for a Chapter 7 regardless of the "extra" income.