Determining your income in bankruptcy is the key to whether you will be allowed to file Chapter 7 or be required to file Chapter 13 and the Means Test is the gatekeeper.

What is the bankruptcy Means Test and how does it work?

Although private school tuition expenses may be allowed under the reasonable and necessary standard, the determination of whether they will be an allowed expense is extremely fact intensive and varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.

Bankruptcy can provide an option for those facing issues with paying their rent or mortgage during the COVID-19 pandemic. Both Chapter 13 and Chapter 7 provide tools to assist people struggling to make these payments get the time they need to catch up on those payments or unload the obligation.

The CARES Act now allows a debtor to modify their confirmed Chapter 13 Plan out to as much as 84 months. While that is a shield for debtors, it may be a sword for Chapter 13 Trustees.

As with anything else in bankruptcy, how to handle homeowner association (HOA) dues depends on what you want to do with your home mortgage obligation and where you are in the process.

If you forget to list a creditor in your bankruptcy case there are several ways to address the problem and still maintain your discharge as to that creditor.

Bankruptcy fraud can take many forms beyond lying on your bankruptcy paperwork or not telling the truth at the 341 Meeting of Creditors.

How often you can file bankruptcy will usually depend on whether you received a discharge in your previous case and the date your filed your previous case.

The cram down of a vehicle loan and the reduction of the loan interest in a Chapter 13 Bankruptcy is a fairly straight forward process and can generate significant savings in your Chapter 13 case.

The lien strip characteristic of the Chapter 13 Bankruptcy is a powerful tool to reorganize your debts and remove subordinate liens on your home after bankruptcy is done, if you complete your plan and other conditions are right.

In a Chapter 13, the treatment of a rent-to-own agreement will be governed by state law and the economic reality of fighting over that determination.

As a general rule, you are not required to file an adversary proceeding to discharge tax debt, but such a proceeding does provide some level of certainty that the tax debt is dischargeable.

Personally assessed taxes like the trust fund recovery penalty can not be discharged in bankruptcy.

A tax lien, like any other kind of pre-petition lien, will survive bankruptcy regardless of whether the actual claim is discharged in the bankruptcy proceeding.

While the discharge of income tax debt is fairly simple in bankruptcy, there are several factors that you must satisfy to accomplish that discharge.

Under the good faith payment prong of the student loan discharge test you must show good faith efforts to repay your loans, maximize your income, and minimize your expenses.

The exceptional circumstances prong of the student loan discharge test is interested in what factors will exist for the foreseeable future that make it impossible for you to repay your student loan debt.

Under prong one of the student loan discharge test, you do not need to live in abject poverty to show that you cannot maintain a minimum standard of living if you are required to repay your student loan debt.

While it is possible to discharge student loan debt in a bankruptcy, it is very difficult and very expensive.

While most people know that their home and car loans are secured and perfected, few people realize that the money they charged on a store credit card to buy that new TV or furniture is also secured and perfected.

A Chapter 13 can save your home by paying off the mortgage arrearage over time and making your monthly mortgage payment under the protection of the automatic stay.

While there are some general rules about how bankruptcy will impact your credit score, the actual impact will depend on your circumstances and your conduct after bankruptcy.

How much a bankruptcy will cost varies depending on the services you are looking for and the result you hope to achieve. There are costs that vary from case to case and costs that are the same. The cost that will vary the most is the fee the attorney charges for his or her services. The cost is generally based on the amount of work needed to accomplish your goals.