A bankruptcy can help by allowing you to discharge your debts and no longer be legally responsible for repaying those debts, giving you the chance to start over. This blank slate comes with a price, however. Filing for bankruptcy will affect your credit score and can make it harder to get future loans or credit cards. Nevertheless, for many people who are in financial trouble, there is no other way to remedy the situation but to file for bankruptcy. There are two types of bankruptcies that are commonly filed by individuals in the United States -- Chapter 7 bankruptcy and Chapter 13 bankruptcy. Each type of bankruptcy has its own way of helping those who are in insurmountable debt, with Chapter 7 bankruptcy discharging most or all of your debts and Chapter 13 reorganizing your debts into more manageable monthly payments. Qualification requirements also vary depending on the type of bankruptcy you choose to go with.

Chapter 7 Bankruptcy

The idea behind a Chapter 7 bankruptcy is that you do not have enough income to repay all of the debts that you owe. As such, most of your debts are discharged in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy. In 2005, bankruptcy laws changed to add income limits to qualify for a Chapter 7 bankruptcy. The past six months of your income will be used to determine whether or not you qualify for a Chapter 7 bankruptcy along with the number of people in your household. Generally, the income limits are as follows:

Filing bankruptcy before the end of December may help you qualify for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Here’s an example showing how this could work.

The month of December is the month that people receive more income than any other month of the year. According to the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis (part of the U.S. Department of Commerce), for at least the past 9 years (2009 through 2017) U.S. personal income was the highest in December than in any other calendar month.

The timing of your bankruptcy filing can determine whether you qualify for quick Chapter 7 vs. paying into a Chapter 13 plan for 3-5 years.

Timing Can Be SO Important

There are lots of ways you could greatly benefit from meeting with a bankruptcy lawyer sooner rather than later. You may save yourself lots of money by choosing an option that would not be available to you later.

The timing of your Chapter 7 filing—a difference of even just a day or two—can affect whether you qualify for it based on your income.

How could filing your Chapter 7 a day or two earlier or later make such a big difference?

 We show by example how the means test works, when a person qualifies for a Chapter 7 case simply by income.  

An Example is Worth a Thousand Words

You have to pass the means test to qualify for a Chapter 7 “straight bankruptcy. In a recent blog post we said that the easiest way to pass the means test is by your income. If your income is low enough you pass without having to look at your allowed expenses or special circumstances.  Let’s see how this works by way of an example.