objections to exemption

[sweetiepie0815]

Today in the mail I received an Objection to Debtor's Exemptions from my trustee. My 341 meeting was on 12/19 and I was told I would need to submit this years' income tax and I received a letter explaining what to do last week, but today I received this letter. I have absolutely no clue what it means. In the one section, it states that what we claimed as exempt personal property has been undervalued including, but not limited to bank account balances on date of filing, 2006 tax refunds and equity in personal property including vehicles; once the values are properly scheduled, Debtor's equity will exceed the allowable exemptions available to Debtor. What does theis mean?????

Yes, we will be getting a refund on our taxes, but we have to send that to our trustee and my bank balances were less than $50 on the day we filed. My husband still gets direct deposit, but we pull out the money the day it goes in. Also, we are surrendering one of our vehicles and the other one we owe $5000 more than the value of it. I'm sorry this is so long, but I am very confused by this. Will our case be dismissed now? What is going on?????

[HHM]

I don't know how else to say this, it means exactly what it says. The Trustee is disputing what you claimed as exempt and is disputing the value of certain assets you claimed as exempt. In short, the trustee is trying to get some money and thinks he has a good faith basis that you miscalculated or misjudged the exemptions.

Ultimately, there will be a hearing in front of the BK judge, but well before that hearing you will need to file a response to this objection with an "Opposition to Trustee's Objection" wherein you explain, in essence, that you are right and the trustee is wrong.

[sweetiepie0815]

Do you know how long this process will take? I still don't understand why they think we have assets when we are living paycheck to paycheck, we don't have a house and we're going down to one car! Our case was scheduled to be discharged in exactly a month. We are planning to move out of state in a month or two because we just cannot afford anything and we want to be with family that can help us out. Will we have to stay here just so we can appear before a judge to tell him that we have nothing? I've read in some of these posts that people are making 90K + a year and still filing bankruptcy and we barely make half that and have a child and day care to pay for. This is just so frustrating and there seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel.

[HHM]

Did you file using an attorney, or did you file Pro Se?

The trustee's motion should explain exactly what they are disputing. It sounds like it might ultimately be a timing issue, with direct deposit, it may have hit before you filed, and therefore it exceeded the exemption amount.

It's really hard for anyone here to speculate on what specifically is the issue.

[SinkingFast]

Along HHM's line of thought,.............. If you have online banking available, go back to the day you filed and print out your Bank Statement for the month, up to and including the day you filed. That will show the Court exactly how much money you had in your Checking Acct on the day you filed BK. If you don't have online banking, swing by the Bank and pick up a print out from them.

Go thru your Schedule B. Double check all your Personal Property and your Exemptions. Maybe some Exemption Statute was not coded properly.

You said the Trustee wants your Income Tax Refund,............ Did you have or apply any Exemption for that??

Many States have an Earned But Unpaid Wages Statute. I believe ours was 75% was Exempt. Maybe you had Earned But Unpaid Wages that were not Exempted.

There are any number of BK Exemption Statutes that could have been typo'd or misapplied. You'll just have to look.

We're all in the same boat here. I know $90K/yr may sound like a fortune to you, but it's really all relative. I believe I know which Member you're referring to. They were living in Utah, lost a job, and HAD to relocate for employment. That person has a family of 6 and lives in New Jersey where the Median for his family is right at $102,500. They lost everything but their car. As you can see, that person is not living near as high on the hog as it might sound.

[CATCHMEIFYOUCAN]

Trustee Looking for Assets

I have something similiar, I was soppose to be discharged around Jan 8th but the Trustee put in a notification there might be Assets. I don't understand, because I CONVERTED to Ch7 no asset case. I owe on a new car I bought about a month before I filed because my other car got flooded. The first Trustee from when I was in Ch13 didn't blink and eye. I don't know what the Trustee is looking for? And I have a 401k which I thought they couldn't touch that amounts to $13,000. Surely they can't make me take that out as it would be impossible unless Fidelity thinks BK is a hardship to withdraw it, and if the Trustee makes me do that than I will suffer a heavy tax penalty in 2007. I don't even get a refund from 2006 as I'll owe about $5000 for defaulting on this other 401k plan I had when I quit one job just to convert to Ch7.

We'll see, my lawyer doesn't have a clue either!

Good Luck, Catchmeifyoucan, let me know how it goes if you want to PM me!