Worried

[SMinGA]

I see in an earlier post you were considering letting the house go. If you think that is a good move for you to make ultimately, consider this:

File ch. 7 to discharge everything... The high house & HELOC payments will help you get thru the ch. 7 even being over median. After discharge, stop paying & let the house go, staying for as long as you can to save up money to move into a rental.

Really seems you need a better attorney. An attorney telling you to hide the c/support income is insane, and from the little bit you have posted here regarding expenses - its highly unnecessary. Your atty either did not review your income fully or does not know how to compute DMI. (If he is the one to tell you to use gross to determine DMI that is.)

[drowning123]

Thanks all for being so helpful.

I thought that only your gross was considered. If it's net, then I should be OK.

I have my parents over 65.

I have one child. My parents babysit, of course, so no child care expense.

Yes, my house is worth less than what I owe by $20,000. It's actually worth less than what I bought it for by $10,000.

I guess I should be claiming more on my W4.

Re: Utilities - my heating, gas, electricity in the winter months is $600 (sometimes a little higher), cable (triple) is usually 220, water is $30 (higher in summer months), garbage is $30, plus mowing, plowing of snow. We have long winters in New York.

My parents get food stamps, that's why I didn't put so much for food and groceries. Should I still make those higher even though my parents assist with food stamps?

[drowning123]

Should be meeting with attorney this week to finalize and file, so I'll clean up everything.

[SMinGA]

Its net income - though you do want your net to be accurate. If you're holding out extra taxes to get a bigger refund, its like you have a personal loan to yourself and that won't make you look good in BK. Plus seems you could use that $ now.

For the $1000 utilities: I would break it down into utilities & home maintenance, since it seems the snow removal, yard maintenance should fall into that area. Don't include cable here - your atty will probably put cable in as 'other'. $220/mo for cable may be questioned though I don't think it will matter for you overall.

You have a reason to spend less than 'average' on food - but you should still consider what you need in those other areas. Household supplies, personal care, etc.

[drowning123]

Thanks! Also, yes, I do get a tax refund every year.

[momofthree]

Technically you do calculate dmi based on gross, but you are allowed to subtract out withholdings, which you'll need to adjust before filing.

So, if you got a refund of $2400 (just grabbing a random round number), then you'd adjust your withholdings to receive that extra $200 a month in your paycheck, which would then count towards your dmi.

You'll need to list your cable separately and be aware that they may challenge it as it's not a necessary living expense and it is excessive. But, again, if you're far enough in the negative, then it won't matter. It just depends how close you are to having positive dmi. They may find that by challenging 3-4 different expenses, they can push you into positive dmi. Looking at your current situation though, I'm doubtful that that will happen. You'll probably slide right past.

As a side note: If your parents have any income, you may need to list it on your petition, backing out the amount that they use to pay their own bills, so that only the amount they contribute to the household remains.

[drowning123]

Believe me, my parents have no income. My mother gets the equivalent of $220 US per month as a pension from another country. My father gets nothing. They do get $160 in temporary assistance from the government.

I actually just did my own calculation of my 6-month income and my monthly net income works out to $5404, including child support.

I really need to go work with my attorney. Thanks all for all the advice.

[stormy]

I am supposed to receive child support but I don't since I ended up with a deadbeat parent; he owes over $10,000 and the State is currently pursuing him. From January thru July of this year I received a whopping $400 in support.

My lawyer listed it on my forms but didn't figure it into my income because it's not a reliable source of income; I never know if or when I'll ever receive it. He said he's had other Chapter 7's with this problem and that's what he does as far as filling out the forms. He listed his name as the responsible party for support; no address available, then for amount of support owed he simply put "unknown". At this point, we're not really sure what he owes me or where he lives.

[drowning123]

I am supposed to receive child support but I don't since I ended up with a deadbeat parent; he owes over $10,000 and the State is currently pursuing him. From January thru July of this year I received a whopping $400 in support.

My lawyer listed it on my forms but didn't figure it into my income because it's not a reliable source of income; I never know if or when I'll ever receive it. He said he's had other Chapter 7's with this problem and that's what he does as far as filling out the forms. He listed his name as the responsible party for support; no address available, then for amount of support owed he simply put "unknown". At this point, we're not really sure what he owes me or where he lives.

That's a real dead beat. Sorry to hear your woes.

[SMinGA]

Based on your situation - this seems the proper way to handle the c/support on your petition. If you were receiving regular child support, however, you would disclose that.

My lawyer listed it on my forms but didn't figure it into my income because it's not a reliable source of income; I never know if or when I'll ever receive it. He said he's had other Chapter 7's with this problem and that's what he does as far as filling out the forms. He listed his name as the responsible party for support; no address available, then for amount of support owed he simply put "unknown". At this point, we're not really sure what he owes me or where he lives.

[drowning123]

I'll report mine. I don't want anything hanging over me.

[drowning123]

Other question. My mother has me on an account in another country. This is an account she opened when I was a child. All the money in there is hers from her pension. Should I disclose that account? Once a year she asks me to transfer funds from that account to my account in the US, then I give her the money. The most ever transferred is US$2,000.

[SMinGA]

That one is really a question for an atty. If your name is on the account, its an asset but I am not sure how it will be handled. If your mother is on the account and all the deposits can be traced to your mother, it might be no issue at all. Or it might just be a matter of you being able to exempt whatever is in the account at time of filing.

Other question. My mother has me on an account in another country. This is an account she opened when I was a child. All the money in there is hers from her pension. Should I disclose that account? Once a year she asks me to transfer funds from that account to my account in the US, then I give her the money. The most ever transferred is US$2,000.

[NoMoreCards]

Hard to say how they would handle you giving your parents money to help support them, if it comes up they have money in another country.

I would guess it would be a problem to take money from your creditors to pay a obligation like that when they are sitting on funds elsewhere, in the trustee's eyes.

But as always, check with your attorney. It is just something that might come up.

All the best.

[drowning123]

Hard to say how they would handle you giving your parents money to help support them, if it comes up they have money in another country.

I would guess it would be a problem to take money from your creditors to pay a obligation like that when they are sitting on funds elsewhere, in the trustee's eyes.

But as always, check with your attorney. It is just something that might come up.

All the best.

It's US$1 to $90 in that country. The most ever in that account is the equivalent of US$2,000, which is transferred once a year. Right now, there's probably only US$900 in the account. My mother's pension is the only money in that account and she only gets the equivalent of US$220 a month. There's no money being sit on.