Student loans & Unsecured debt of Non-Filing Spouse on Schedule J

[mb10240]

Now that I finished the means test and the majority of the "easier" schedules, I've moved onto Schedule J -- current monthly expenditures.

While I am aware that a debtor's student loan payments cannot be included as a monthly expenditure in a Schedule J (or in the means test for that matter), I can't figure out if the non-filing spouse's student loan & other unsecured debt payments are allowed as expenditures. In the means test, the non-filing spouse's unsecured debt payments are generally allowed as a "marital adjustment," so why shouldn't the same thing apply in Schedule J?

I'm leaning towards "yes": while a Debtor's student loans would go into forbearance during any bankruptcy, the non-filing spouse's student loans are still in repayment and her unsecured credit card debt ain't going anywhere.

[backtoschool]

I checked the US trustee's guidelines on the web and here is what I found:

The allowable list of expenses is the same for you and your non-filing spouse and are according to irs standards. Student loans that only your non-filing spouse is responsible for can be used to lower your spouse's contribution to income but do not count as an expense.

Same for any other obligations that your non filing spouse is solely responsible for.

An expense cannot both be used for a reduction in income and an increase in expenses.