Means Test/Income change

[AreSoonParted]

Hello all,
I've been on the verge of filing bk for about the past year!! But with bonus pay, retention pay, etc.... I've been able to hang in there.

So, here's my question. I will be under the chapter 7 means test if I file in April. But I know I am scheduled to get my performance review in April, and a profit sharing check. I don't know how much of a raise I'll get, or the size of the profit sharing check.

Does anyone have any experience with having a pay increase between when the 22A & 22C forms are filled out (and using the 6 month lookback for income), but before the actual filing date??? What I don't want to have happen is to be "forced" into a Chapter 13.

I haven't talked to a lawyer yet on this because when I talked to one a year ago he mentioned that trustees will often ask about when you first saw a lawyer and if it's several months before filing they really go over everything.

Any comments would be appreciated.

thanks

[juststupid]

How close are you to the median income for your state?

My husband is Army an just reenlisted and got a 15k bonus but we technically only got 10k since taxes are hefty for that sum. anyways our lawyer advised us that since our normal income is way below the median than it would not affect our bk... although he did advise us to spend it one things we needed, like clothes and student loans anything that won't raise eyebrows in court. Which was really no big problem since we were three months behind on all our bills and had to repair my husbands car... we paid our insurance premium up until Oct. and other things we needed.

FYI: I know some might say that we should have used that money to pay off our debt, and yes it would have helped, but we have 50k in debt and after paying the 'necessary bills' we wouldnt be left with much especially when I had to put a $2500 downpayment on the vehicle we purchased in order to keep the payments to wear we could afford them.

[wrinkleigh]

At our 341, we were asked if we expected to receive any lump sum payments in the near future, and also if we were expecting any pay increases in the near future.