Federal Tax Refund

[Corina65]

Hello,

I have filed Chap 7 in Florida Middle Distrcit on 12/28/09. I read that my 2009 tax refund is exempt and that the BK Estate has no control over it because I filed my petitions before my tax return status could have been known. Can I get a clarification on that so I have no surprise until my discharge in April? Thanks

[Mi Bankruptcy]

It really depends on your district. However, if you did not exempt your tax return ahead of time you may have to give it up. Did they say anything about it at your 341 meeting.

You would exempted as "anticipated tax return' which means you had to have enough room left over in your exemptions to cover it. As example. Last year me and my wife both exempted 3k each for our return. This was included in our filing. Our attorney told us not to worry about it. However, I told him to list it anyway since I read a case where a trustee went back to get a return and it went before a judge. The judge ruled in the trustees favor because the people had not exempted the return.

[Corina65]

Thanks for your quick reply. We have our 341 meeting on Feb 10. We have no property really to exempt outside of our Homestead. There is not anything else we had to worry about and no equity either. Our petition preparer listed what little we had but we did not designate a tax refund as exempt because frankly I did not expect to get one. One case I read about stated that the court felt that due to the petition being filed prior to knowing a tax return status should exempt it. That was in Missouri however.

[chriselle]

I exempted min as anticipated refund. to make sure they can't take it

[Corina65]

tax refund

Well my 341 meeting is 2/10/10 and the refund is scheduled to be deposited on 2/12/10. We are surrendering our vehicles in the BK and this money is the only means for us to replace our transportation. I was told that you are supposed to be left with something to fall back on to get a fresh start. Since we are not protecting any cash or other personal property because we have none (outside of Homestead), I would have to believe that the trustee will not take it. We'll see if he brings it up next week. So far in advance he has only requested our 2008 return and a bank statement.