Taxes on Means Test

[eyeowe]

I went for my 2nd consultation last week with 2nd attorney. This attorney did not impress me. I do have a question about something that was said. The attorney was calculating the means test and said that income for the last six months was calculated in the means test but only the taxes that are now being paid are entered. Is this correct? I thought that everything was the last 6 months average.

Thanks to all for this wonderful forum.

[laurannm]

The taxes entered should based on what your actual tax liability, including income tax, excise tax, state taxes, Medicare, etc. If you typically do not get a refund every year, then you can just use whatever you have withheld from your paycheck, average out monthly over the past 6 months

If however you typically get a refund, then you need to factor that in (because a refund means that what you are having withheld from your check is more than what you actually owe). So in our case, we typically got a large refund every year. So for the means test our attorney took what we had received for a refund the prior year and divided by 12 months. He then subtracted that from the average monthly withholding as listed on our paystubs to come up with the tax number for the means test.

[eyeowe]

Thanks for the info. I am waiting until Dec 1 to file. If I wait until December 1 to file I won't have to do the means test. That's worth waiting another 6 weeks.