High Income Filer

[jjsmith]

We're getting ready to file for Chapter 7. All doc are into the attorney and they said it will take them 2 weeks to get all the paperwork ready.

My question is, is our income level going to make it more likely for the trustee to make things difficult for us? We have lost a significant portion of our income this year and are now only making $100K, where we were double that last year.

We are going to be doing a non-consumer debt filing, so we don't need to use the means test, and hopefully the trustee takes notice that we are below the median income, given our household of 10.

I read a lot of posts about things going pretty smoothly for many people, but I'm wondering if they just go smoothly because those people have little to no income. Have those out there who have been in the higher income bracket had a much harder time?

[StartingOver08]

Usually if you are higher income, you will have to supply more information/documentation. At least that's what I had to do. Check out the posts of the high income filers and you will see that most have to supply more docs than 6 mths worth...

I had to supply years worth of data: bank statements, credit card stmts, P&L's, tax returns etc. They wanted it all....

[jjsmith]

My attorney actually required all those items up front for him to review. He's actually a trustee in our county as well. So, I'm hoping with his experience as a trustee that he will know how to help us with our more complicated scenario. I don't know if it's different for each state, but I was told only 1 months bank statements was needed to turn into the trustee and he just wanted 6 months and all the extra documentation in case the US Trustee audited.

Was your case audited? If so, was that why you needed the extra docs? Is there more chance or being audited if you're a high filer or is it completely random. At what point did you need to submit all the extra documentation, before or after your 341?

[StartingOver08]

No, my case was not audited. I had to supply all the documentation to my ATTORNEY up front before I filed and naturally, the attorney supplied the documentation to the trustee. The reason the Trustee required extra documentation was because I was over median income, high debt and I have a small business.