Bankruptcy Chapter 13. Insight/Advice appreciated

[Jenna]

Please no meanness or judging (wishful thinking I know). Bare with me, long complicated story…..
Anyway, My husband filed Ch 13 in December, he agreed for the trustee to take $1500 of his tax refund (we file separate) after the trustee found out how much him and I received last year she suggested to his attorney she would be seeking to take more. On finding this out we filed 2/1 with TT, in hopes that we would file and receive the taxes before the trustee requested them for the bankruptcy. She mailed her request to the IRS on 2/15 requesting the ENTIRE amount of both of our tax refunds, we have contacted the attorney. We have 2 biological children, 3 adopted children, and we are also foster parents and yes we both have full time careers, own our home and a small business so we usually receive a substantial refund amount but it always goes for car/house maintenance and purchasing the children what they need as 3 of them are special needs. I’m pretty sure her request hasn’t made it to the IRS yet, WMR updated this morning but ours only updated to the processing message. I’m really hoping our DD makes it to our bank before the IRS receives that rotten trustee’s letter. His case isn’t even confirmed yet. How can this happen? Has anyone else experienced this? And what are the odds of us getting the refund before her?

[TATOOD]

If he doesnt get his hands on the money he will demand it later. Or worse deny the BK. Be careful playing with those guys. They know what your trying to do as theyve seen it a million times. My lawyer told me absolutely surrender the money or risk BK Denial. In the courts eyes that’s their money.

[Spre]

Crisp it is not standard.

John doe its 10 years for a bankruptcy. They should have informed you of that

[Crisp?]

During my bankruptcy the refund took like 2 months to get it back that’s standard.

[John Doe]

I filed for Chapter 13 in 2015, but failed around 15 months in. Chapter 13 is a nightmare. Waiting for my Tax Refund to file Chapter 7 and do it correctly. If you fail a Chapter 13 or not, it will stay on your report for 7 years, wish I was told that.

[Spre]

That’s why I filed bankruptcy myself Pro Se in 2015. Attorneys charge you a lot and don’t tell you everything. Mine was almost seventy pages long but I made sure I exempt on my tax refund will trustee still try to take them but since they are under 10000 the bankruptcy judge denied their request because I Exempted them.

If you haven’t gone in front of the bankruptcy judge yet have your attorney modify the bankruptcy to include the exempt of tax refund.

I myself would never File 13 it’s just a bigger hassle in the long run if it’s because you’re worried about losing certain things you can reaffirm them which means you agree to pay them and they are exempt from your bankruptcy certain creditors will not accept a reaffirmation but most for vehicles and homes will because values aren’t there right now

[Londyn38]

@spre is completely correct. You have to claim exempt when initially filing bankruptcy or yes they do have the option now to take all your money. I’m a paralegal so this I know. Your attorney should have informed you of that @jenna

[Jenna]

@spre
Interesting!!! The attorneys didn’t even tell us that was an option!!!!

[Jenna]

Thank you for your feedback. We will definitely request a new trustee and depending upon the attorney’s answer we might be switching to a new one of those as well. They’ve been pretty passive with the trustee and I don’t feel like they’ve been very proactive for us they have basically gone with whatever the trustee says almost seems they’re afraid of her or they have their hands in each other’s “money pockets”…. definitely a huge issue I worry about. Money laundering and fraud in a chapter 13

[Spre]

You should have Exempted your taxes when you filed your bk. Federal law allows you to exempt up to 10k of misc which includes tax refunds. unfortunately since you did not the trustee can take all your taxes

[Jennifer Starr]

My husband and I filed Chapter 13 Bankruptcy in 2011, it was my understanding at the time that the trustee was only allowed to attach portions of a tax refund not pertaining to EIC, CTC or ACTC, unless you request otherwise. What has you’re lawyer said? Also, if you feel that this trustee is treating you unfairly, you can petition the court for a new one. Also, keep in mind, it was 8 years ago that we filed and laws could have changed. I would think, given that there is an agreement in place pertaining to your taxes, the trustee could just send a letter to the IRS requesting the entire return, that’s not how offsets work. Even if you agreed to give them 1500.00, the entire refund would come to you and it would be up to you to pay the trustee the agreed upon amount. If your lawyer is not helping you out on this, I would suggest a change there also.

[Bowl]

We also filed Ch 13 a few years back and the Trusttee In Tennessee got all of our refund besides $1,500 which was required by law they couldn’t take from our refund. Not sure if this helps but thought we’d share.

[Author]

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