New here and have questions!

[christy1977]

Hi everyone!

Hubby and I went to our first consultation with a lawyer the other day. Just have a few questions that I didn't ask in the meeting becuase I didn't know to ask them until I got home and found this website! What valuable information!!! Glad I found this before filing! Just a quick rundown of our situation.

We live in GA - Husband/Wife/6 yr old son
Husband unemployed since 10/2013 - health problems forced him to leave job and have not been able to find any work since.
I am employed FT -- take home approx. $1600.00/month - tight budget to say the least! We live very frugally! No cable/satellite, we do "free" things for fun, no luxuries, eat out maybe once a month....you get the picture!
We are current on our mortgate (upside down)
I have a 2007 paid for small SUV - he has a paid for 1992 small SUV - both not worth much at alll....
Approx 19,000 CC debt that we stopped paying 11/2013 (CC debt was due to several years of lowered hours for both of us due to economy - used cards to pay bills, buy groceries)
Approx 5,200 we owe on older bass boat that was repoed by Santander in June of this year

My questions are...

1. The lawyer never talked about this (and I didn't know to ask) in our meeting, but he wrote in on the "notes" sheet that he gave to us to take home. There was a line about REAFFIRMATIONS and he wrote in our home mortgage. I wasn't sure what that meant so I googled and that's how I found this site. I see that is not a good thing...correct? Do we HAVE to do this in order to keep our home? Like I said we are current on our mortgage and want to continue to pay. Any advice?

2. What about a tax refund. If we get one....ran some calculations on H&R block and may get back 1,500 or so....do we get to keep this? We could really use this to pay for car insurance /phone cards and such...basically living expenses no TV's or such...

3. My husband's parents are not in good health and he has to help them a lot, driving them to appoinments, doing chores, etc....they help us make ends meet when need be. Not in excess of $200 a month. Do I need to "report" this...??

Thanks in advance for your help!

[avengers]

2. What about a tax refund. If we get one....ran some calculations on H&R block and may get back 1,500 or so....do we get to keep this? We could really use this to pay for car insurance /phone cards and such...basically living expenses no TV's or such...

Tax refund belongs to the trustee. In my 341, the trustee specifically told everyone in the room to file their taxes and request a check (not direct deposit), then forward the check directly to the trustee, he will take out what belongs to him and you keep the rest. Basically, if you file on December 1, you keep 1/12 of the refund and the bankruptcy trustee takes the rest and distributes it to your debtors.

[LadyInTheRed]

Welcome to bkforum!

1. You do not have to reaffirm your mortgage to keep your home. You may have to say on your Statement of Intentions that you intend to reaffirm the mortgage, but you can change your mind and not sign a reaffirmation agreement. Do not reaffirm your mortgage!

2. Whether you can keep your refund depends on whether you can exempt it. Here is info on Georgia's exemptions. http://www.nolo.com/legal-encycloped...xemptions.html. If you can't exempt the refund, you may want to delay filing BK until you receive and spend the refund.

3. Regular payments from your husband's parents may need to be reported. Tell your attorney about the payments and the attorney will advise you whether and how they should be reported.

[LadyInTheRed]

Tax refund belongs to the trustee. In my 341, the trustee specifically told everyone in the room to file their taxes and request a check (not direct deposit), then forward the check directly to the trustee, he will take out what belongs to him and you keep the rest. Basically, if you file on December 1, you keep 1/12 of the refund and the bankruptcy trustee takes the rest and distributes it to your debtors.

This is an issue that varies by state. Arizona has no exemption to cover a tax refund. In Georgia, there may be a wildcard exemption available to cover a refund.

[christy1977]

Thanks Lady! Thank you for the link. Hopefully we can use the wildcard. We really don't have any assets.... we really need the refund to use on living expenses!