Need help with Schedule I and J

[sweinc]

I am confused about how to calculate the income and expenses an Schedules I and J. It says Current Monthly Income. Does this mean the one month before filing? It talks about an average which implies multiple months but nowhere including looking this up in the U.S code does it say how many months this would be.

[GettingGoing]

I am confused about how to calculate the income and expenses an Schedules I and J. It says Current Monthly Income. Does this mean the one month before filing? It talks about an average which implies multiple months but nowhere including looking this up in the U.S code does it say how many months this would be.

If you are filing this month (June) you would use December, January, February, March, April, May. You use the previous 6 months prior to the month you file.

[geye]

That's not what we were told. The 6-month look back average is for the means test, but the income on Schedule I that you use for schedule J uses your average current income (which for us, due to the employer's elimination of OT, is about $1000/month less than what is on the means test.)

[sweinc]

Thanks to all for the quick replies but this is what I mean. I now have two replies to my post that conflict with each other. Geye, what do you mean by average monthly income? What is being averaged? It is frustrating to me that after much research I can not find a definite answer to this question. I would think it reasonable to assume that if the Federal Government is going to allow people to file BK without an attorney they would have to provide some sort of clear explanation on how to fill in these schedules. Yet the only info I can find states that the result on Schedule I will be different from the means test and it calls for on Schedule I, which is titled as Current Monthly income, for an average income which even a fifth grade student knows that to average something you need a set of related values that get divided by the quantity of values. Yet the Schedule I says nowhere what that quantity is.
Maybe I am missing an easy point, but could someone who has actually filed , please tell me how they calculated this on their schedule.

[GettingGoing]

Thanks to all for the quick replies but this is what I mean. I now have two replies to my post that conflict with each other. Geye, what do you mean by average monthly income? What is being averaged? It is frustrating to me that after much research I can not find a definite answer to this question. I would think it reasonable to assume that if the Federal Government is going to allow people to file BK without an attorney they would have to provide some sort of clear explanation on how to fill in these schedules. Yet the only info I can find states that the result on Schedule I will be different from the means test and it calls for on Schedule I, which is titled as Current Monthly income, for an average income which even a fifth grade student knows that to average something you need a set of related values that get divided by the quantity of values. Yet the Schedule I says nowhere what that quantity is.
Maybe I am missing an easy point, but could someone who has actually filed , please tell me how they calculated this on their schedule.

I apologize as I did not read your post correctly and my original post is for the means test.

For schedule I at the advice of a few attorneys I talked to I went back about 3 months and added up total income and then divided by 3. This worked well for me because my income had not changed in the three months prior to filing however it may not work for you if you have fluctuations in your income or no income in the past three months.

Here is a thread with some good information. Hope it helps.

http://www.bkforum.com/showthread.php?t=44791

[geye]

for us it's pretty cut and dry because DH is salaried so he receives the same amount every month. OT is gone, and you look back at the paystubs and see it dwindle and dry up altogether.