A few questions about personal property...Estimating, Exemptions, ect

[TomTea31]

I've been working on my paperwork and I'm at the point where I need to list personal property and it's worth. How the heck do I do this? The nolo book doesn't give much information for calculating household stuff.

Is eBay & Craigslist suitable for most of this? What about cars? And what if the cars are in my husbands name only and he's not filing with me? Do I still list them? I am in a comm property state (WA).

I have some furniture that's not worth anything. I bet I couldn't give it away. So I was going to place it's value at $1

Also when an exemption says it can be doubled or gives more value as a comm can I double or use the higher amount if my spouse is not filing?

Do I list the kids stuff as well? WA state exemptions don't show anything for children's personal property.

Thank Tomtea'

[TomTea31]

OH and one more thing

My state exempts books to $1500. I have some software that has a rather large amount of books packaged together. So can I legally exempt that under books?

And it also says clothing, no more than $1,000 in furs, jewelry, ornaments
Does that mean clothing cannot exceed $1,000 or that the furs, jewelry and ornaments can't?

And some of my exemptions do not list a dollar amount. When this is so does it mean that everything that falls under that exemption is "exempted" regardless of worth?

[TomTea31]

and if I'm claiming the federal exemptions do I also get the other "regular" exemptions on top of the federal? So confused on this.

WA state has federal exemp available

[ValleYum]

eBay and Craiglist are fine - the trustees here want garage sale type prices.

You have to pick one or the other.

Most people in WA who aren't trying to protect equity in their home use the Federal exemptions because of the Wild Card that you can use to exempt anticipated tax refunds, cash and other items not covered under other exemptions. You can use just a portion of the Wild Card to stack on another exemption amount that isn't large enough to fully cover an asset as well.

[TomTea31]

I just found the federal exemptions. I did not see them in the back of the nolo chapt on exemp until now. I understand now.

So the homestead of $10,125 can be applied to any property if your not using it for a house or real property, and this is addition to the other federal exemptions like personal property of $10,777? If so then definitely going to claim federal.

[ValleYum]

The dollar amounts have changed since your book printed.

http://www.legalconsumer.com/bankruptcy/laws/#US

But yes, the unused portion of the homestead up to $10,825 can be used as a Wild Card.

In addition, there is another Wild Card of $1,150. Animals, crops, clothing, appliances, books, furnishings, household goods, musical instruments can be exempted up to $550 per item and a $11,525 total. Jewelry can be exempted to a value of $1,450. A vehicle can be exempted up to $3,450.

If you don't have home equity to exempt, Federal exemptions are usually a good choice.

[buzzstpoint]

When I filled my paperwork, I used the "What I could sell it for". Not what it's worth. My surround sound with LCD is worth about 500, but I could probably sell it for 250 max.
I also lumped a lot of stuff together, "Bedroom furniture sets, Kitchen appliances,

Most importantly, If you are running out of exemptions, Be creative with your exemptions. I put all my garage tools in the "tools of the trade" simple because I will use them at my work sometimes.

With the exception of my vehicles. I used Kbb for that. But noted that was a fair price and my vehicles are actually classified at poor via KBB

As for No value items you put that.
I added my pets, with a 0 dollar amount, Family pictures 0 dollar amount. Realisticly , who would buy a box of pictures of family.. Probably nobody.

For the most part I think trustees are looking for the big ticket items, like the 5000 mahogany bedroom set, not the 25 dollar partical board bookcase you bought at wal-mart.

[ValleYum]

When I filled my paperwork, I used the "What I could sell it for". Not what it's worth. My surround sound with LCD is worth about 500, but I could probably sell it for 250 max.
I also lumped a lot of stuff together, "Bedroom furniture sets, Kitchen appliances,

Most importantly, If you are running out of exemptions, Be creative with your exemptions. I put all my garage tools in the "tools of the trade" simple because I will use them at my work sometimes.

With the exception of my vehicles. I used Kbb for that. But noted that was a fair price and my vehicles are actually classified at poor via KBB

As for No value items you put that.
I added my pets, with a 0 dollar amount, Family pictures 0 dollar amount. Realisticly , who would buy a box of pictures of family.. Probably nobody.

For the most part I think trustees are looking for the big ticket items, like the 5000 mahogany bedroom set, not the 25 dollar partical board bookcase you bought at wal-mart.

Perfectly put!!!

[TomTea31]

do I need to exempt a vehicle that is not in my name? for instance it's in my spouse's name and he's not filing?

[buzzstpoint]

Normally no you will not exempt his vehicle or property.. Unless you live in a Community Property State then Yes you would exempt it.
You will have to check the "Community property" laws if you live in a Community State like Wisconsin. (My state is, so you would exempt his vehicle in this situation. If you lived in Wisconsin))