One time income vs. Means Testing

[ccsjoe]

Hey everybody,

I just officially retained my attorney today and we will be filing by end of August for CH7, which means not even a 30 day late on any of my cc's...woohoo.

But that's not the point of this post. I was worried sick about the means test because in late April and May I received one time non-wage payments of over 6K, in addition to expecting a settlement check for a class-action suit by end of August/early September to the tune of almost 5K. These would make us miserably fail any and all means testing. My attorney's take was:

1. One time income already received: Not to worry, since it was one time and not recurring he can argue it off the means testing with any of the trustees in our district, as he has done before.

2. One time income expected: List as asset, not income, since it will be received during the filing process, then use part of wildcard to exempt.

Not sure if his reasoning applies anywhere else or is just specific to the trustees in my district (I know wildcards vary, etc), but since I asked about this before and got no answers I thought I would share the answer with everyone who may benefit from it!

Cheers!

[SMinGA]

Makes sense.

About #1, I think you may be putting too much importance on the means test itself, and not considering that actual income (look forward) is used in your schedules. Being over median income (6 month lookback) may mean more scrutiny. But from what you have described - the April/May income is not something that would allow you future DMI for a plan payment. If your current income/expenses shows no DMI, that is the key detail.

For #2, yes its an asset. The only issue would be if you could not exempt it. In that case, you'd want to wait until you received it in order to spend the $ on items that would be exempt.

[ccsjoe]

Correct. Although I have no control over the timing of #2 because checks are mailed out....I guess I could just not deposit it or go to a check cashing place and pay the fee for that "service" so it's out of my account, but I feel now that I have no need to hide anything. Feels great to know this!!