Does the Attorney go over your claimed expenses?

[Faust]

Does you attorney go over your expenses before filing to be sure you can go 7 instead of 13? Do they look for things you might have missed or wrongly calculated?

Meeting with our atty tomorrow and she says we are VERY close! I hope we will be able to review what she has come up with.

[mtbc]

They should, but ultimately much of it is your responsibility, so don't be afraid to ask questions if anything you review surprises or confuses you, that's what your attorney is there for.

[Chowder]

Mine did. He called it "massaging" the numbers to what he knew would not raise the trustees interest.

[viking64]

I went to the attorney convinced a ch 13 was the only option. She said she'll look at numbers, it's amazing what we forget to claim or underestimate. Sure enough, her paralegal really knew how to prod me to to get the most thorough answers to get the DMI down. The burden was on me to provide the accurate information, but they kept thinking of things I overlooked or underestimated. I ended up an easy Ch 7.

How do you know how much you spend on things like clothing and car repairs, when you spend all your money on consumer debt payments? I could also put in a more desirable figure for church tithe since I would no longer be servicing debt. Apparently your charitable contributions line item can be based on future intent rather than last 6 months as long as you stay at a reasonable figure.

[Faust]

I went to the attorney convinced a ch 13 was the only option. She said she'll look at numbers, it's amazing what we forget to claim or underestimate. Sure enough, her paralegal really knew how to prod me to to get the most thorough answers to get the DMI down. The burden was on me to provide the accurate information, but they kept thinking of things I overlooked or underestimated. I ended up an easy Ch 7.

How do you know how much you spend on things like clothing and car repairs, when you spend all your money on consumer debt payments? I could also put in a more desirable figure for church tithe since I would no longer be servicing debt. Apparently your charitable contributions line item can be based on future intent rather than last 6 months as long as you stay at a reasonable figure.

Thanks! That is good to know!

I'm very nervous about our meeting today. She is going to file this week, one way or the other....

[ApresMoi]

What state are you in? Thanks. I'm in CA and just wonder if it would be the same (whether future intent OK). One blog (FL atty.) said it needed to be actual expenses.

[viking64]

Regarding charitable contributions, there was a dust-up after the bankruptcy reform act, which apparently eliminated charitable contributions from the expense budget according to a New York ruling. Congress quickly fixed that, so that your budget can now include up to 15% of your gross income for charitable contributions. The expense is calculated on future intent rather than past because most people stop giving charitably when their finances are tight. Yet, most churches teach that the tithe is the standard of giving, so the is a freedom of religion issue. The law mentions charitable contributions rather than tithing to avoid church/state conflict. However, you have to follow through.

Do a google word search on "tithing bankruptcy chapter 7"

You are also entitled to the IRS standards for your expenses.

[ApresMoi]

Thanks. On rereading ... are you saying only charitable contributions can be based on future intent? And the other IRS allowed expenses are actual?

[viking64]

Thanks. On rereading ... are you saying only charitable contributions can be based on future intent? And the other IRS allowed expenses are actual?

I'm not an attorney so I'm not comfortable saying anything! From my reading, you can definitely include charitable contributions into your expense budget as long as they are less than 15% of gross income. For instance, my budget included the amount of my pledge to my church for 2010, not the amount I actually gave in the year I filed.

My understanding is that the IRS amounts for clothing, housing, car, etc., are allowed amounts, even if you didn't spend that much in the past (due to servicing debt, for instance) and you actually do have those expenses. For instance, you can't include car expenses if you don't have a car. In my case, I don't have rent or gas/electric so they are missing from my expenses. If your actual are over the IRS limits, you need to be prepared to defend that with receipts and a reason.

Again, I have nowhere near the expertise of others on the forum. I just found the bit on charitable contributions interesting because I work for a non-profit that depends exclusively on charitable giving.

It's kind of nice to see that the legal system protects such giving and the bankruptcy code includes it as part of the bare minimum of a reasonable budget.

[LimpDisc]

Thanks. On rereading ... are you saying only charitable contributions can be based on future intent? And the other IRS allowed expenses are actual?

Our attorney said it wouldn't be a problem to start charitable contributions after we stopped paying our CC's. He just said be careful with the amount. Trying to put down 15% after giving nothing would surely raise a red flag for the trustee. So we started bi-weekly payroll contributions for a total of $50 per month.