How much cash can you have on hand when declaring?

[AllMyDefault]

How much cash can you have on hand when declaring?

I mean, if you have say $300-400, will the trustee seize such a small amount?

[dina13]

It depends on your state's exemptions. Some states could choose between their state's and federal exemptions. What state are you in?

[kawh]

If you want to be safe, just prepay a couple of utilities or other unavoidable expenses, assuming you're Ch 7, not 13.
If you have a savings account, you could use some to buy say, car insurance for a few months.

As well as exemptions available in your state, it may depend on the sources of your cash on hand and on the trustee's view of your income.

In my own case, my state has no specific exemptions for cash and no wild cards (plus you have to use the state, can't use federal). I had liquidated a very small savings account out of concern for that, using it to buy some insurance. Still, I had a few hundred on hand at time of filing, from deposit of retirement funds. I guess because my main sources of income/deposits to the checking account were exempt, the trustee had no interest in what my balances were on the date of filing, and abandoned my pitiful assets the day after the 341.

[AngelinaCat]

We were told to have as close to zero in our checking account, as possible on the day we filed--a Ch7. We actually were a little overdrawn so that worked out. We also had between the two of us, maybe $25.00 in singles and loose change.

[dina13]

We used federal exemptions, so we were able to exempt all our cash - about $800, plus other stuff.

[LadyInTheRed]

I exempted over $10K in cash under California's wildcard exemption.

It really does depend on what state you are in.

[AllMyDefault]

Thanks for the answers.

I am in Texas which has a fairly high exemption level, 30k per person if memory serves. But I don't know how much of that can be cash.

[LadyInTheRed]

You can read about Texas exemptions at http://www.legalconsumer.com/bankrup...-law.php?ST=TX

Texas allows you a choice of federal exemptions or Texas exemptions. Federal exemptions are shown on the same page. It looks like you'd have to use federal exemptions if you want to exempt cash.

[dina13]

I just checked Nolo book for Texas exemptions. It says Texas is one of the states that allow federal exemption option. Texas exemptions look generous if you own a home and lots of personal property you wish to exempt. It doesn't have a wildcard to exempt cash, though. On the other hand, if you don't own a home, and have under $11,525 per person of personal property, you might want to look into federal exemptions that offer a wildcard of $1,150 + up to $10,825 of unused homestead exemption per person to cover ANY property including cash.