totality of circumstances?

[xraya]

oh and for tax refunds, this past year, I got $650 back between federal and state. I need to go back and check my withholding again. Would it be better to claim 0 and have more taken out weekly and get a big refund next year? I spent my refund this year on a new, and much needed, bed.

[DeadManCrawling]

Totality of the Circumstances is a strange beast, and can vary wildly among BK Districts. We were worried about a similar situation.

Briefly: Since we were not keeping our house, we would have shown an extra 6-8k per month. Yes, $6,000-8,000 per month. That was our combined expense amount for mortgage, maintenance, insurance, HOA, and so on. In our district in Florida, though, there had just been some very strong precedent-setting rulings that made it clear that the pre-petition numbers could not be used against the debtor after filing, and force a CH 13, no matter how large those numbers might be.

Still, it worried us. But we went through with no problem. No questions, even, though it was all spelled out in the filing schedules.

I mention all this simply to suggest that you check into any possible cases that affect yours. With each District being so different, there may be prior rulings that can help you avoid a CH 13.

[nohoneymoney]

We did a lot of figuring, web surfing and worrying trying to determine what we could or couldn't file. This got all cleared up once we went to the first lawyer. We interviewed with a couple more and picked the one we were the most comfortable with. These interviews lasted about an hour each and were at no cost to us. I recommend that you do your best to collect all your relevant documents and go see a couple of bankruptcy lawyers. It made all the difference for us. Best of luck.

[SMinGA2]

Increasing the amount withheld from your check - to decrease your net pay & get a bigger refund - is a BAD idea in my opinion. The trustees would be good at looking at this sort of thing, and it could easily backfire. If you got refunds before, if anything, the trustee might expect you to decrease your withholdings to make your net pay more. If you're getting a refund, the trustee could argue 1/12 of it should be added to your monthly DMI. (But for $650 total refund between state & federal, hopefully that amount is not large enough to be a problem.)

This is a good topic to discuss with your attorney, whether or not you need to change your withholding claims.

[SMinGA2]

You might not be able to get your DMI low enough to manage a ch. 7. But by making these changes, if you do file ch. 13 you'll pay less into your plan and be better off in your own finances.

well I changed my deductibles on my auto insurance from $1000 to $500 today and got a renter's insurance policy as well. I also figured out what my excise tax/registration will be per month. These are all kind of small amounts, but maybe they will start to add up over time. I'm too tired to recrunch the numbers now (damn you third shift!) but maybe tomorrow or Sunday I will feel less foggy.

[ValleYum]

Random comment: If you and your fiance married and THEN filed, would you be a slam-dunk Chapter 7 then? Something to think about.

[xraya]

Random comment: If you and your fiance married and THEN filed, would you be a slam-dunk Chapter 7 then? Something to think about.

Just saw this reply, but no if we were married, the combined incomes for us both would be over the median for our state. If you throw a baby into that mix, then that puts us/me under. But with each new test result we get, that reality isn't getting any closer.

I spoke with the paralegal today and there haven't been any judgements entered for me yet. I will be doing my counseling course this weekend when I have more time and then schedule a meeting with the attorney to go over EVERYTHING and figure out for sure which direction I will be going with this. At this point, I'm pretty resigned to the fact that I will be in a Chapter 13. From what I've read, I should be in a 3 year plan, since I am under the median income for the state.

I'm not sure how getting married will play into all of this. I guess that's another question for the attorney.