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Paying Employee Debt in Bankruptcy

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If you prefer to pay back wages to a present or prior employee, bankruptcy can help you do so if you use the law in that employee’s favor.  

 

Our last two blog posts were about debts owed to your employees or independent contractors. Specifically we discussed the conditions in which past wages, commissions, or benefits qualify as “priority” debt. Two weeks ago we got into the conditions that apply to both employees and independent contractors. Last week the focus was on a special additional condition that only independent contractors must meet.

Whether a debt qualifies for priority status is often crucial. That’s because this can determine whether or not you pay that debt in the bankruptcy case.   In a no-asset Chapter 7 case none of the debts receive any payment within the case. So whether an unpaid wage or commission qualifies as priority or not doesn’t matter in this situation. But in an asset Chapter 7 case it makes all the difference. It’s common that priority debts receive payment in part or in full, while the rest of the debts receive little or nothing. There’s a similar result in a Chapter 11 business reorganization or 13 adjustment of debts case. Priority debts generally receive payment in full while other debts receive little or nothing.

Assume that you’d prefer that your past or present employee/independent contractor receive payment for what you owe him or her at the time of your bankruptcy filing. If so, you need to know the conditions for making that debt a priority debt, and how to apply them. Today we’ll review the conditions and then apply them an asset Chapter 7 example. Next week blog post will demonstrate an example in a Chapter 13 case.

The Conditions

We covered the conditions that an unpaid wage or commission is a priority debt the last two blog posts. We’ll review them very briefly here.

For a debt you owe either an employee or independent contractor:

If you owe the debt to an independent contractor, he or she needs to meet an additional condition. The debt is a priority debt ONLY if

during the 12 months preceding that date [of bankruptcy filing or cessation of business], at least 75 percent of the amount that the individual or corporation earned by acting as an independent contractor in the sale of goods or services was earned from the debtor.

Section 507(a)(4)(B) of the Bankruptcy Code (bold added).

Our Chapter 7 Asset Case Example

Assume you owe a prior employee $7,500 for wages and benefits. Your employee earned these wages and benefits over a period of four months, from 150 to 30 days ago, when you had to lay her off.

Your sole proprietorship business is still operating. You intend to close it and file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy soon.

Your bankruptcy lawyer has advised you that your business equipment is not exempt. This mean it’s not protected from collection and liquidation by the Chapter 7 bankruptcy trustee. He or she will take it from you, sell it, and use the proceeds to pay your creditors.

This equipment has a liquidation value of about $10,000. You don’t need the equipment after closing the business because you don’t intend to be in this kind of business ever again. But you do wish you could put it’s value to some good use.

You owe $150,000 on all of the rest of your debts. These consist of unsecured trade debt, business and personal unsecured credit cards, and medical bills. These are all considered “general unsecured” debts. None are priority debts except potentially the $7,500 you owe to your prior employee. You have a home mortgage but you’ve managed to keep current on it. Your home has a bit of equity but it’s protected by the homestead exemption.

Timing the Filing of Your Chapter 7 Case

You may have reasons to delay filing your case. You may have new employment lined up but it doesn’t start for several months. You may have business customer paying you soon and you’ll need the money for your home mortgage in the meantime. There can be countless legal and/or practical reasons for filing your case later.

However, your prior employee would likely really benefit from you filing your case within about a month. Then, because of the 180-day condition cited above, there’s a good chance she’d receive all or most of her $7,500.

How? The Chapter 7 trustee would liquidate your business equipment. The trustee would receive a fee—likely about $1,750. (By law, no more than 25% of the first $5,000 liquidated and 10% on the second $5,000. Section 326(a) of the Bankruptcy Code.) $10,000 minus $1,750 leaves $8,250. (25% for the first $5,000 is $1,250, plus 10% for the second $5,000 is $500, totaling the trustee’s $1,750 fee.) The remaining $8,250 would go to pay priority debts first, before paying anything to the general unsecured debts.

The $7,500 debt to your prior employee would all be priority debt. That’s because in our scenario it was all earned within the 180-day period before your simultaneous business closure and bankruptcy filing. Plus the $7,500 amount is less than the $13,650 limit referenced above.

So in this example your prior employee would receive her $7,500 in full.

Of course if the business equipment sold for less, your employee would receive only partial payment. Assume it sold not for $10,000 but rather only $7,000. $7,000 minus the trustee’s $1,450 would leave $5,550 for the trustee to distribute. Likely all of this would go to your employee. So she’d receive at least a significant portion of her debt.

If You Delayed Filing Bankruptcy

Assume instead that you closed your business and filed your Chapter 7 case five months from now. At that point all of her wages and benefits would have been earned more than 180 days earlier. So, none of the $7,500 would qualify as priority. The debt would be a general unsecured one, lumped in with other $150,000 of such debt.

Then, your employee would receive very little. Assume again that the bankruptcy trustee sells your business equipment for $10,000, leaving $8,250 for payment of the debts. This would be distributed pro rata to the $157,500 in general unsecured debt (her $7,500 plus the other $150,000). $8,250 divided by $157,500 amounts to all debts receiving only about 5 cents on the dollar. So your prior employee would receive only about $375 on her $7,500 debt.

Conclusion

There are many factors that come into play for determining what day you file your bankruptcy case. Some of those factors may well be much more important than helping your employee/independent contractor receive payment. But sometimes a business owner has some flexibility on timing. And getting an employee/independent contractor some money may be a high priority for various personal or business reasons. This would be especially true if that money would otherwise go to a debt you don’t care about getting paid. In such situations you and your bankruptcy lawyer may well be able to put these priority laws to good use, as we showed in today’s blog post.

 

Commissions Owed to Independent Contractor

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If you owe sales commissions to an independent contractor when you file bankruptcy, it may be a priority debt. Here’s what determines this. 

 

Our last blog post was about conditions in which wages, commissions, or benefits owed to an employee are “priority” debt.

But what if your debt was not to an employee but an independent contractor? Especially in today’s “gig economy,” small businesses (and large ones, too) often have independent contractors instead of employees.

Why “Priority” Matters

As discussed last week, whether a debt qualifies as a priority debt can make a huge difference.

This most often matters in a Chapter 13 “adjustment of debts” case. You have to pay all priority debts in full during the 3-to-5-year court-approved payment plan. In huge contrast, usually you only pay the non-priority “general unsecured” debts to the extent you can afford to pay. The common result is that you pay priority debts 100%, while those that don’t qualify as priority little or nothing.

The distinction between priority and general unsecured also matters in an “asset” Chapter 7 case. That’s the relatively uncommon situation in which a debtor needs to surrender an unprotected asset to the Chapter 7 trustee. In that situation the trustee liquidates the asset and pays priority debts in full before paying any general unsecured debts. The result: priority debts often get paid in full or in part, while there’s nothing for any general unsecured debts.

The distinction between priority and general unsecured does not directly matter in a simple, “no-asset” Chapter 7 “straight bankruptcy” case. That’s the common situation when everything you own is “exempt”—protected from the Chapter 7 trustee. Many Chapter 7 cases are “no-asset” ones. (However, note that most priority debts can’t be discharged in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy. So while such debts won’t receive anything from the trustee, you’ll likely still have to pay the debt afterwards yourself.)

The Basic Amount/Timing Rule

Whether you owe an employee or an independent contractor, some of the conditions to make the debt priority are the same.

First is the maximum dollar amount. The maximum amount of a debt that would qualify as priority is $13,650. See the discussion in our last blog post about this amount. (Also see the original statute’s $10,000 amount in Section 507(a)(4) of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, the cost-of-living provision in Section 104 of the Bankruptcy Code, and the current $13,650 amount since April 1, 2019 in this notice in the Federal Register.)

The second condition is the timing. The debt owed must be

earned within 180 days before the date of the filing of the [bankruptcy] petition or the date of the cessation of the debtor’s business, whichever occurs first

Section 507(a)(4) of the Bankruptcy Code.

So, any amount owed to an employee/contractor beyond $13,650 would be a general unsecured debt, not a priority one. Same with any amounts earned outside the specified 180-day period.

The Special Independent Contractor Rule

Beyond the above amount/timing conditions, there’s another significant condition especially for independent contractors. The debt is a priority debt ONLY if

during the 12 months preceding that date [of bankruptcy filing or cessation of business], at least 75 percent of the amount that the individual or corporation earned by acting as an independent contractor in the sale of goods or services was earned from the debtor.

Section 507(a)(4)(B) of the Bankruptcy Code.

So if your independent contractor earned less than 75% of its overall income during that one-year period from you, then none of what you owe it is priority.

Presumably the purpose of this condition is so that it applies only to independent contractors who are more like employees. It includes only those independent contractors who work mostly for you. It is not meant to apply to debts owed to suppliers of goods and services that serve many customers. Those are more like conventional payables, which are general unsecured debts, not entitled to priority.

 

Wages Owed to an Employee

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If you owe wages to an employee when you file bankruptcy, that may or not be a priority debt. Here’s what determines this and why it matters.  

 

Our last dozen blog posts have been about “priority” debts. These are special unsecured debts that bankruptcy law treats better than the rest, called “general unsecured” debts.

(Secured debts are a third main category of debts, distinctive because they are attached to your assets as security. We’ve covered those before and will again later. But now we’re addressing priority debts, which are not secured by any of your assets.)

The most common priority debts in consumer bankruptcy cases are income taxes and child/spousal support. So our recent blog posts have focused on these two. But if you have been operating a business with employees or independent contractors there are other important potential priority debts. These involve unpaid wages, salaries, commissions and benefits owed at the time of bankruptcy filing. Our next few blog posts will focus on these.

The Conditions of Priority

If you owe a wage, salary, commission, or employee benefit when filing bankruptcy, that may or not be a priority debt. It depends on timing and the amount owed. The pertinent statute says that priority debts include those:

only to the extent of $13,650 for each individual or corporation, as the case may be, earned within 180 days before the date of the filing of the petition or the date of the cessation of the debtor’s business, whichever occurs first, for… wages, salaries, or commissions, including vacation, severance, and sick leave pay earned by an individual

Section 507(a)(4) of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.

The $13,650 Dollar Limit

This dollar limit is mostly self-explanatory. Any amount owed to an employee up to $13,650 is a priority debt. Any amount beyond that is just a general unsecured debt.

This amount may seem odd. That’s because it’s been adjusted for inflation every 3 years as mandated by law. Section 104 of the Bankruptcy Code. It was originally $10,000. It’s been $13,650 for bankruptcy cases filed since April 1, 2019 (and will likely increase on April 1, 2022). See this notice in the Federal Register of February 12, 2019.

Timing

The wage, commission, etc. must have been earned within a very strict time period of 180 days. This is 180 days before your bankruptcy filing date or before you stopped operating your business, whichever happens first. So for example if you stop operating your business on January 1 and then file bankruptcy on the following March 1, the pertinent period would be the 180 day period before January 1. Wages, etc. earned during that period would count as priority. Earnings outside that period would be general unsecured debt.

Why Priority Matters

Whether a debt is a priority or general unsecured one sometimes doesn’t matter. But often it matters a lot.

This distinction of itself does not matter in a simple, “no-asset” Chapter 7 “straight bankruptcy” case. That’s one in which everything you own is “exempt”—protected from collection by the Chapter 7 trustee. Most straightforward consumer Chapter 7 cases are “no-asset.” If you operated a business you may also have a “no-asset” Chapter 7 case although that’s less likely.

The priority-general unsecured distinction matters a lot in an “asset” Chapter 7 case. That’s because the trustee pays debts out of the collected and liquidated non-exempt assets. The trustee pays priority debts in full before paying anything to general unsecured debts. Often that means that priority debts are the only ones that receive any funds from the trustee. Or priority debts may be paid in full while general unsecured debts only receive a few pennies on the dollar.

The priority-general unsecured distinction also matters a lot in all Chapter 13 “adjustment of debts” cases. A 3-to-5-year court-approved Chapter 13 payment plan must pay all priority debts in full. In contrast, the plan usually pays general unsecured debts only if and only to the extent there’s any money left over after paying all priority (and often secured) debts first. The result is that priority debts stand a much better chance of getting paid. In contrast, general unsecured debts often receive only a small portion of the amount owed, and sometimes absolutely nothing. (This also largely applies to Chapter 11 business reorganizations and Chapter 12 farm reorganizations.)

So under “asset” Chapter 7s and all Chapter 13s, whether a wage, etc. meets the priority conditions or not usually makes a tremendous difference about whether and the extent to which it is paid.

Order of Priority

There’s one more important consideration in whether a wage, etc. gets paid and to what extent. The law doesn’t just make a distinction between priority and general unsecured debts. Some priority debts have higher priority than others. The higher priority debts receive payment in full before the lower priority ones receive anything.

This doesn’t matter so much under Chapter 13 in which you must pay all priority debts in full. Nor does it matter in an asset Chapter 7 case in which there’s plenty of money to pay all priority debts. But it does matter in an asset Chapter 7 case in which there are more than one type of priority debts and there’s only enough money to pay some of them.

The order of priority for wages and such is fourth out of the ten listed priority debts. Some of these ten are obscure ones that seldom apply. Focusing on the most common ones, the wage priority is lower than child and spousal support debts but higher than income taxes.

 

A Chapter 13 Plan to Catch up on Past-Due Support

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Here’s an example of a Chapter 13 payment plan to pay past-due child and/or spousal support, showing how you can catch up safely and sanely. 

 

Today we put what we explained in the last three weeks of blog post into a sample Chapter 13 plan. It shows how powerfully Chapter 13 helps you if you owe past due child and/or spousal support. A Chapter 13 filing protects you from the aggressive collection of overdue support, immediately and as long as needed. And through the Chapter 13 payment plan you get a reasonable and even peaceful way to catch up on support.

The Example

Assume you’ve fallen behind on both child and spousal support because your income was interrupted. You owe $6,000 in past-due support. You’re back at work so you can now pay your ongoing monthly support but have no way to catch up. You have too many other debts.

Your ex-spouse’s support enforcement agency is poised to garnish your wages for the past-due support. If they did so you wouldn’t be able to pay your vehicle loan payment and you’d lose your vehicle.

Assume that the divorce decree requires you to pay $900 in monthly child support and $600 in monthly spousal support, $1,500 total, for 5 more years. So the $6,000 in past-due support represents 4 months of missed payments.

You got a good deal on the vehicle loan. So the vehicle is worth about as much as you owe on it—$10,000. Your monthly payments are $425 per month, with 25 more payments to go.

Besides the $5,000 in past-due support and the vehicle loan, you owe $95,000 in other debts. These other debts are all unsecured credit cards and medical bills—“general unsecured debts” under bankruptcy law. If you pay the monthly payments on the credit cards you have no money left for the medical debts, much less the $1,500 in ongoing support payments. You are in a very tight financial box.

Chapter 13 gets you out of that box fast, and solves these problems permanently.

Your Chapter 13 Budget and “Disposable Income”

Filing a Chapter 13 case stops the collection of past due support immediately. See our blog posts of 2 and 3 weeks ago about this works and the conditions you must meet. See the blog post of last week about how the Chapter 13 plan gives you a safe and flexible way to catch up on the support. Today’s example brings all this together.

In a Chapter 13 case you and your bankruptcy lawyer put together a monthly budget of your income and expenses. That budget gives you money to pay your ongoing monthly support as well as you own reasonable expenses. See Subsection 1325(b)(2)(A)(i) of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.

The amount left over is your monthly “projected disposable income.” See Section 1325(b)(1)(B)  of the Bankruptcy Code.

The way this works is your monthly expenses exclude any debt payments. Your expenses DO include the $1,500 in child and support payments since that’s a required ongoing expense. But your expenses don’t include any money for the past-due support since that part is a debt.

Your expenses for determining your disposable income also don’t include the $425 vehicle loan payment. That is of course a debt as well.

Assume that after subtracting all of your monthly expenses (including the $1,500 in support) your monthly “projected disposable income” is $500. You commit to paying that amount to all of your creditors for the following 3 years in your Chapter 13 payment plan.  

The Chapter 13 Plan

Paying $500 per month for 3 years would in most situations be enough to take care of all your debts. This includes the $6,000 in past-due support. At the end of 3 years you would have paid off the vehicle loan, caught up on the support, and be free and clear on all your other debts.

How could this be when you owe $425 per month on just your vehicle loan? And what about the $95,000 in credit card and medical debts? How could just $500 per month over 3 years cover ALL of these debts?

This is possible for the following main reasons. Chapter 13 usually allows you to:

  1. Delay paying the past-due support until your plan pays certain other debts first—here the vehicle loan.
  2. Pay the general unsecured debts only as much as you have disposable income to pay them. The rest is forever written off (“discharged”).

In this present example $525 per month for 36 months provides a total of $18,900 to pay on all the debts. About $10,665 of that would go to the $10,000 vehicle loan (the extra amount being interest). $6,000 would go to pay the past-due support.

That leaves $2,235. The Chapter 13 trustee (who receives and distributes your $525 payments) gets a fee. In this case assume 5% of every dollar that flows through the plan, or $945 here.

That now leaves $1,290. Your bankruptcy lawyer gets paid out of your plan to the extent you didn’t pay him or her in advance. Most or all of that $1,290 would like go to your lawyer.

This leaves nothing for the $95,000 in general unsecured debts. In many circumstances that’s allowed. It’s called a 0% Chapter 13 plan—paying the general unsecured debts 0% of the debt amounts.

The Result Here

In this example you could stop paying all your debts when you filed your Chapter 13 case. Support enforcement would immediately stop as to the past-due support. All other collection of debts would stop as well. You would have a budget enabling you to take care of all your reasonable and necessary expenses. That would include your ongoing monthly support obligations. You would protect your vehicle loan and your vehicle.

After 3 years you’d have paid off your vehicle loan, caught up on support, paid all expenses of the Chapter 13 case, and paid nothing on the general unsecured debts and yet no longer owe anything on them. This is an incredibly good result.

Other Possibilities

In many circumstances Chapter 13 gives you results this good as to your past-due support and otherwise. But in other circumstances Chapter 13 is extremely helpful yet not as perfect results. For example, your case may take longer than 3 years—it can be as long as 5 years. You may have to pay general unsecured debts something instead of nothing, sometimes even a significant percentage. This blog post has been long enough so we’ll look at such other scenarios next week.

 

Who Needs an Estate Plan?

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Most people are familiar with wills, a document which outlines one’s posthumous wishes for their property and loved ones. What many do not know, however, is that a will is just one of many types of estate planning documents. While many believe a will is sufficient for their needs, a comprehensive estate plan may be more beneficial.

Who Needs an Estate Plan?

Generally speaking, the purpose of estate planning is to prepare for the future. How exactly to plan for your future and whether it requires an estate plan depends on many factors. If any of the following situations apply to you, contact our Palm Desert estate planning attorney to learn more about your options.

You Have a Child or Multiple Children

The birth of a child warrants the consideration to create an estate plan. A comprehensive estate plan will outline your wishes for your child in the event that you pass away. This includes naming a guardian for your child if he or she is under 18 years of age. Appointing a guardian will ensure that your child or children will receive care in your absence.

If children are receiving an inheritance, then establishing a trust is ideal for managing the assets. Additionally, a living trust can protect adult beneficiaries from mishandling his or her inheritance.

You Have a Complex Estate

The term ‘estate’ refers to anything of value that a person owns. This can include:

  • Land and other real estate
  • Possessions (tangible personal property)
  • Investments
  • Insurance
  • Other assets and entitlements

If you own anything, then an estate plan can help you protect it. However, if you have multiple assets, it is important to have a comprehensive estate plan for many reasons.

With the right plan, you may be able to avoid or reduce applicable federal estate and inheritance taxes. Further, some estate planning documents may protect your estate from seizure through lawsuits. Additionally, a living trust estate plan may allow your estate to avoid the probate process. Doing so may save your beneficiaries a lot of time and money.

You Want to Prepare for Special Circumstances

Another purpose of estate planning involves preparing for personal adversity. For example, some estate planning documents make provisions for you in the event that you become mentally incapacitated. To prepare for this possibility, you may want to appoint a medical and/or financial power of attorney. A medical power of attorney will name the person who has the power to make medical decisions for you. A financial power of attorney will name the person who has the power to manage your finances if you are unable to do so yourself.

Speak With Our Cathedral City Estate Planning Lawyer Today

If you have questions concerning the estate planning process, consider contacting our office today. Our estate planning attorney in Palm Springs can help you determine which documents are right for you. Call us today at (760) 202-5939.

Catching up on Support through Chapter 13

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Chapter 13 gives you a powerful, reasonable, flexible, and even calm procedure for catching up on your past-due child or spousal support. 

 

The last two weeks we’ve shown how Chapter 13 can stop the collection of unpaid child and spousal support. First we talked about how this benefit is much better than Chapter 7 can provide. Then we focused on the ongoing conditions you must meet to keep up this protection.

But there’s a second benefit of Chapter 13 that deserves attention. It doesn’t just stop the collection of unpaid support. Chapter 13 provides a powerfully flexible way to catch up on that support debt.

Why This Is a Huge Benefit

Whatever child or spousal support you owe at the time of your bankruptcy filing, you can’t write off (“discharge”). It’s among the relatively few kinds of debts that bankruptcy does not discharge under any circumstances. See U.S. Bankruptcy Code Sections 523(a)(5) and 101(14A). So you have to pay it, whether you file bankruptcy or not. Whether you file Chapter 7 or 13 or any other kind of bankruptcy.

So this is a debt you have to pay. The issue is what is the easiest, most financially sensible and low-stress way to do so. 

As we discussed in our blog post 3 weeks ago, Chapter 7 doesn’t help much. It doesn’t stop the collection of unpaid support at all. You’re on your own catching up on any unpaid support.

Chapter 13 does stop the collection of unpaid support immediately, and continues to protect you as long as you meet some ongoing conditions.  What Chapter 13 also does is provide you the tool to pay off the support debt. That tool is a court-approved payment plan for all your debts, based on what you can actually afford to pay. That payment plan enables you to catch up on your support debt over time. The plan works into your budget all your other debts—especially other debts very important to you. So you can catch up on your support at a sensible pace without being hounded about it.

How the Chapter 13 Payment Plan Works

How could this possibly work in real life? Consider the following:

  1. The Chapter 13 payment plan is based on your actual income and reasonable expenses.
  2. The plan prioritizes debts in a way that’s generally in your favor.
  3. Other debts sometimes get your money ahead of the support debt, usually to your benefit.
  4. You have 3-to-5-years to catch up on all your unpaid support debt.

We’ll take these four one at a time.

1. Based on Actual Income and Expenses

The Chapter 13 payment plan usually involves a single monthly payment to all of your creditors. (Although sometimes a special debt is paid separately, like a home mortgage.) That single monthly payment is based on what you can actually afford to pay. It’s based on your actual income and reasonable expenses. The income is a projection based on your very best estimate of how much you’ll make each month. The expenses try to cover all your expenses, including ones that don’t happen every month. (For example, vehicle maintenance and repairs, and medical expenses.)

The point is to determine how much you can truly and reasonably afford to pay monthly in a sustainable way. It should not cause you anxiety. You should feel confident that you can fulfill your payment plan.

2. Prioritizing Debts

A Chapter 13 plan basically divides debts into those you must pay in full and those you pay only as much as you can afford to pay. 

The unpaid support debt is in the first category. This category may also include other such must-pay debts like recent income taxes. It can also include secured debts like vehicle or mortgage obligations.

The second category usually includes all other debts—your “general unsecured” debts. These you usually pay only as much as you can, if there’s any money left over for them at all.

So Chapter 13 lets you focus your limited financial resources on those debts that you need to pay. And it gives you an extended time to pay them, so that you can afford to do so.

3. Paying Other Debts Ahead of Support

Outside the protection of Chapter 13, arguably no debts come ahead of unpaid support. That’s because the law makes the support enforcement collection tools so powerful.

But within the protection of a Chapter 13 case and plan, those aggressive collection tools are tamed. So you don’t necessarily pay an unpaid support debt first in the plan. You may have other debts—especially a secured debt or two—that you can pay first. So if you are behind on your mortgage, or doing a cram-down on your vehicle loan, you can often pay these ahead of your support debt.   If you owe other “priority” debts like recent income taxes, your plan usually pays your support debt along with such other important debts.

With Chapter 13 you’re not at the mercy of these important creditors. Your court-approved payment plan gives you a great way to deal with them all, including the support.  

4. Pay Off Unpaid Support by Case Completion

As mentioned, you have as long as 5 years to catch up on your unpaid support. Your official plan does need to include enough money to accomplish that (and everything else that must get paid). And you do need to fulfill the terms of that plan successfully to the end. Of course if you have an ongoing support obligation you have to keep paying that. (It will be included in your monthly expenses.)

Then by the end of your payment plan you will be current on your support. You’ll have paid off or gotten current on all your other special debts. Whatever you haven’t paid on your general unsecured debts will get discharged. And you’ll be free and clear of all debts.

 

Conditions for Stopping Support Collections in Chapter 13

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Chapter 13 immediately stops the collection of past-due child or spousal support. But to keep that protection you must meet some conditions.  


Last week we showed how Chapter 13 stops the collection of unpaid child and spousal support, while Chapter 7 doesn’t. But we ended by emphasizing that anyone can quickly lose this huge benefit of Chapter 13 “adjustment of debts”. Avoiding this requires strictly complying with some conditions. These conditions are arguably sensible ones. But you need to know and understand them so you don’t lose this crucial Chapter 13 benefit. Because these conditions are so important we focus today’s entire blog post on them.

Ongoing Child and Spousal Support

But before we get to these conditions we need to make a strong point. We’re talking here about child and/or spousal support that is unpaid, past-due, at the time of the bankruptcy filing. This past-due support is different from ongoing support. 

Ongoing support is the support you need to keep paying, usually on a monthly basis, after your bankruptcy lawyer files your bankruptcy case. Past-due support is any amount of support that you’re behind on as of that filing date.  Ongoing support is the support due after that filing date.

Filing bankruptcy does NOT stop the collection of any ongoing support, under either Chapter 7 or Chapter 13. The “automatic stay” that protects you from creditor collections does not apply. (See Section 362(b)(2)(B) of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code—where ongoing support is called “domestic support obligation.”) So, if you are paying support by direct payments, you need to keep paying those after filing bankruptcy.  If you are paying through a payroll deduction or by garnishment, those should continue. You can only change those forward-looking payments through the divorce court which ordered them.

Chapter 13 only stops the collection of past-due support—which, again, Chapter 7 does not. (Past-due support is also sometimes called support arrears or support arrearage.) So the conditions we discuss now are ones you need to meet to stop the collection of past-due support.

Inform Your Collector of Support

Your bankruptcy lawyer’s Chapter 13 filing will immediately stop the collection of past-due support.  This does assume that either you or your lawyer informs your ex-spouse or the support enforcement agency about your Chapter 13 filing. The automatic stay applies at the moment of filing, but the creditor needs to know about it to be able to comply. Coordinate this with your lawyer.

Most support enforcement agencies understand this special power of Chapter 13 and will comply immediately. Although sometimes it may take some lawyerly persuasion.

Ex-spouses are more likely under the misimpression that your Chapter 13 filing has no effect whatsoever on your support obligation. He or she probably has never heard about this special benefit of Chapter 13 for past-due support. If so, your lawyer will likely contact him or her, or his or her lawyer if there is one, to inform him or her about the law.  

The Conditions to Avoid Collection of Past-Due Support

Once the automatic stay stops collection of past-due support, you’ll lose this benefit if you don’t maintain the following conditions:

1) keep current on your ongoing support

2) show in your Chapter 13 payment plan how you will pay off all the support arrearage during the 3–to-5-year life of the plan

3) consistently make your Chapter 13 plan payments so that you are in fact making continued progress towards paying off the past-due support

4) finish your Chapter 13 case successfully, which includes paying off the entire past-due support

Let’s look at these one by one.

1) Keep Current on Ongoing Support

Assuming you continue to owe ongoing support, you absolutely must keep paying it as long as you are obligated to. Otherwise you’d be going financially backwards instead of forwards. You’d be called on it by the support enforcement agency or your ex-spouse. The very likely result would be that you’d lose the automatic stay protection against collection of the past-due support.

Plus you need to be very strict on the timing. You have to pay the monthly payments precisely by the due dates. Otherwise there’s a good chance that your ex-spouse/support enforcement will inform the bankruptcy court and ask permission to resume collection.

In particular be fully aware of the first support payment due after your Chapter 13 case filing date. For example, if your case is filed on January 25 and your monthly support payments are due on the first of every month, you need to make that first after-filing support payment by February 1. Talk with your bankruptcy lawyer about the timing of your Chapter 13 filing so that you have the funds to pay that first support payment.            

2) Payment Plan Includes Planned Pay-off

Bankruptcy law requires you to pay off all your past-due support during the 3–to-5-year life of the plan. Your Chapter 13 lawyer will make the necessary calculations to show how you will so so. Your monthly plan payments will be based on what you can afford to pay to all of your creditors. Incorporated into those monthly payments is money that will go to pay off the past -due support. You and your lawyer have to show that these plan payments are enough to accomplish this.

Otherwise your ex-spouse/support enforcement agency can object to the plan. He/she/it could also ask for permission to resume collections because the plan would not catch up on the past-due support.

3) Make ALL Chapter 13 Plan Payments 

Your Chapter 13 plan not only has to pencil out correctly, but you also must pay the plan payments timely. Otherwise you’re not doing what you agreed to do in the court-approved plan.  Paying the plan payments on time shows that you are actually making continued progress towards paying off the past-due support.

If you got late on the plan payments, your Chapter 13 trustee could ask that your case get thrown out. (The trustee is the person you pay your plan payments to, and who then pays your creditors.) Or any creditor—including your ex-spouse/support enforcement agency—could do the same. Or could just ask for permission to resume collection.

4) Finish Your Chapter 13 Case

So if you have a good payment plan, and you make all the payments, you’ll eventually complete it successfully. (Your plan very likely has some other requirements and this assumes you comply with them as well.) When you complete your plan, you will have paid off the entire past-due support. So it’s really important that you get all the way to the end of your Chapter 13 case successfully.

 

Unpaid Child and Spousal Support in Chapter 13

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Chapter 13 DOES stop the collection of unpaid child or spousal support from your after-filing income and other assets. Chapter 7 does NOT.    

Last week we discussed situations in which Chapter 7 would help if you’re behind on child or spousal support payments. We made clear that Chapter 7 “straight bankruptcy” provides only limited help. Mostly it gives you relief from your other debts so that you can concentrate on catching up on support.  Chapter 13 “adjustment of debts” is a much more powerful option when Chapter 7 is not enough.

The Main Benefits of Chapter 13 When Behind on Support

Chapter 13 takes much, much longer than Chapter 7, and is generally more expensive. But it provides some remarkable benefits compared to Chapter 7. These benefits can make the longer time and greater expense of Chapter 13 more than worthwhile. The main benefits of Chapter 13 are that:

1) Filing Chapter 13 immediately stops the collection of unpaid child or spousal support. Chapter 7 does not.

2) Chapter 13 gives you a relatively flexible and protected way to catch up on the support. With Chapter 7 you have to make your own payment arrangements, without any protection or much leverage.

Basically, have a serious conversation with your bankruptcy lawyer about Chapter 13 if you need these significant benefits.

How Does Chapter 13 Stop the Collection of Unpaid Support?

Chapter 7 is a very straightforward kind of bankruptcy. It focuses on a point in time: the moment your bankruptcy lawyer files your Chapter 7 case. Your case essentially imagines your financial life frozen in time at that moment, including your debts and assets, income and expenses, and such.

Chapter 13 also cares a lot about your financial life at the moment of filing. But it also takes a longer view—the next 3 to 5 years of your court-approved payment plan. In particular, Chapter 13 is designed to protect you during that period of time from your ongoing creditors.

Chapter 7 mostly just writes off (“discharges”) certain debts and does not discharge others. It leaves you on your own to deal with those debts you still owe, such as support.

In contrast, in Chapter 13 the protection from creditors—the “automatic stay”—can last the full 3-to-5 years.  Specifically regarding spousal and child support owed at the time of filing, the automatic stay protects your employment income earned after the filing. This means that as of your filing date your paycheck is protected from wage garnishment or other kinds of forced payment.

Why Doesn’t This Happen under Chapter 13 But Not 7?

Here’s the legal answer. (You can skip this section if you don’t need this level of detail.)

The pertinent federal bankruptcy statute states that the automatic stay does not stop the collection of support out of “property that is not property of the [bankruptcy] estate.” See Subsection 362(b)(2)(B) of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.  This means that a bankruptcy filing does stop the collection from property that is “property of the bankruptcy estate.”

In a Chapter 7 case the bankruptcy estate is essentially everything you own at the moment of filing the case. See Subsection 541 of the Bankruptcy Code on “Property of the estate” generally. This does not include what you earn and assets you acquire after that moment. Since those after-filing earnings and assets are not “property of the estate,” they can be targeted for support collection.

Chapter 13 is different for a simple reason: “the estate” does include after-filing earnings and assets. Only under Chapter 13 the estate includes “earnings from services performed by the debtor after the commencement of the case.” See Subsection 1306(a)(2).

This means that the automatic stay legally prevents your ex-spouse or support enforcement agency from continuing or starting to collect on your unpaid child or spousal support you’re your after-filing earnings the moment your bankruptcy lawyer files your Chapter 13 case. This is true even though a Chapter 7 filing would have absolutely no such effect.

This Chapter 13 Protection Comes with Important Conditions

We said that the automatic stay can last the entire 3-to-5-year period of your Chapter 13 payment plan. But especially when it comes to unpaid support that protection comes with some conditions.

Why are there conditions? Imagine the example of a vehicle loan. You want to keep the vehicle and prevent your lender from repossessing it. The automatic stay can protect your vehicle under Chapter 13 during the entire length of the case. But you have to meet some reasonable conditions like making payments and keeping the vehicle insured. If you don’t, the creditor can get the court to exclude the debt from being covered by the automatic stay. It can get permission to repossess your vehicle after all.

It’s similar with child and spousal support debt. Here the conditions are very time sensitive and are often enforced very strictly. Being able to stop support collection is a huge benefit of Chapter 13. It may even be a major reason for choosing this more time-consuming option. You don’t want to lose this benefit because you didn’t clearly understand and comply with the conditions.

Because of how important these conditions are, we’ll dedicate all of next week’s blog post to them.

 

Unpaid Child and Spousal Support in Chapter 7

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Chapter 7 does not stop the collection of child or spousal support, nor provide any procedure to pay the support. It may still help enough.  


If you are behind on child or spousal support payments Chapter 7 may or may not be a good solution.

Chapter 7 “straight bankruptcy” is the most common type of consumer bankruptcy case.  It is more likely to be a sensible solution if 1) the support isn’t being collected aggressively and 2) you don’t owe terribly much. Why? Because:

1) Filing Chapter 7 does not stop collection of unpaid child or spousal support. Chapter 13 can.

2) Chapter 7 does not give you a procedure for catching up on the support. Chapter 13 “adjustment of debts” does so.

So why would you file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy if you were behind on support?

Filing Chapter 7 When Owing Support

Chapter 7 is usually the most straightforward type of bankruptcy. A case lasts only about 4 months from when your bankruptcy lawyer files it to when it’s completed. A Chapter 13 case involves a formal payment plan that almost always takes 3 to 5 years to finish.

As mentioned above Chapter 13 can stop the immediate collection of unpaid support, and give you time to catch up.

The much quicker Chapter 7 makes sense if you don’t need these kinds of help.

If you stopped paying the debts that Chapter 7 would discharge, could you quickly catch up on support? Would your ex-spouse be willing to accept monthly catch-up payments at an amount you could afford? Or if the debt is being collected by a support enforcement agency, would it accept such voluntary payments? Could you reliably make such payments, while presumably keeping current on the ongoing monthly support?

If you have a feasible way along these lines to catch up on your support obligation during and after your Chapter 7 case, then it may well be your best option.

Other Advantages and Disadvantages of Chapter 13

But you and your bankruptcy lawyer will discuss two other considerations revolving around your other debts.  Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 deal with debts quite differently.

The first consideration is about debts secured by your assets or other ones that you must pay. Secured debts include home mortgages, vehicle loans, and any others with a lien on anything you own. Debts you must pay—besides support—include recent income tax debts. Chapter 13 often handles these kinds of debts much better than Chapter 7. Without getting into the details here, Chapter 13 protects you while you pay such special debts as your budget allows. If you have such debts, how Chapter 13 helps with those may be reason enough to choose that option. Or this, along with the benefits it gives you with unpaid support, may swing you in that direction.

The second consideration is about the rest of your debts—those that are neither secured nor ones you must pay.  These are your “general unsecured” debts. Usually you can discharge (legally write off) all or most of such debts in either Chapter 7 or 13. In most Chapter 7 cases you pay nothing on your general unsecured debts. However, In a Chapter 13 case you often pay a portion of these debts. Whether and how much you pay on your general unsecured debts depend on lots of factors. The biggest factors are your income and expenses and the amount of your special debts (secured and otherwise) that you are paying in full. So you need to weigh the benefits of Chapter 13 regarding your unpaid support and other special debts against the likelihood that you would be paying something instead of nothing on your general unsecured debts.

What Happens to Your Unpaid Child/Spousal Support Debts in a No-Asset Chapter 7 Case?

A “no-asset” Chapter 7 case is one in which everything you own is covered by property exemptions. Exemptions usually allow you to keep certain dollar values of assets in various categories. Most Chapter 7 cases are “no assets” ones. If yours is, you’re able to keep everything (with the exception of collateral you decide to surrender).

In a no-asset Chapter 7 case your bankruptcy trustee does not get any of your assets to liquidate and pay to any of your creditors. (That’s why it’s called “no asset.”) Your bankruptcy lawyer will tell you if yours is expected to be.

Since the trustee doesn’t collect any money to pay your creditors anything, your support debts also receive nothing. So, a support debt gets no money directly from a no-asset Chapter 7 case. You have to deal with the support debt yourself (perhaps with the help of your lawyer), and be prepared to do so right away.

 

A Chapter 13 Plan to Pay Income Tax

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Here’s an example of a Chapter 13 payment plan to pay income tax, showing how you pay what you can afford and avoid some interest, penalties. 

 

Today we put the facts of last week’s blog post into a Chapter 13 plan, showing how it actually works. You’ll see how Chapter 13 saves you money and avoids stress as you pay off your priority income taxes.

The Example: The Tax, Interest, and Penalties

Assume you owe $10,000 to the IRS for income taxes from the 2016 tax year. That’s for the tax alone without the penalties and interest. Plus you owe interest of $1,200 (currently 5% annually), $2,000 for a failure-to-file penalty (which the IRS assesses  at 5% per month of being late), and $1,650 for a failure-to-pay penalty (calculated at 0.5% per month). So including the current interest of $1,200 and a total of $3,650 in penalties this $10,000 tax has turned into a total debt to the IRS of $14,850. And the interest and failure-to-pay penalty just keep on accruing.

As we showed two weeks ago, this relatively recent $10,000 income tax itself can’t be discharged (written off) in bankruptcy. You’d have to figure out a way to pay it after completing a Chapter 7 “straight bankruptcy” case. In a Chapter 13 case you pay that amount through your court-approved payment plan.

The Tax and Interest vs. the Penalties

In either a Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 case the $1,200 in accrued interest has to be paid in full as well. The interest continues accruing nonstop during and after a Chapter 7 case. The difference is that interest effectively stops accruing under Chapter 13. You don’t have to pay any interest beyond the case filing date as long as you successfully complete your case.

The situation is usually the same with any penalties that accrue beyond the bankruptcy case filing date. Under Chapter 7 the penalties continue to accrue, during the case and after it’s completed. Penalties keep getting added on until the tax is paid in full. But under Chapter 13 the penalties generally stop accruing. This is true as long as the IRS did not record a lien on this specific tax before you filed the Chapter 13 case.  (Prior-recorded tax liens create a number of complications that we don’t get into here.)

So, in a Chapter 7 case (or outside of bankruptcy altogether) you’d have to pay the full $14,850 of tax/interest/penalties. Plus the interest and penalties would continue to accrue until you finished paying off the entire debt. If you’d pay it off slowly in an extended monthly payment plan, the additional interest and penalties would be substantial. Conceivably you could end up paying around $20,000 for the $10,000 tax.

In contrast, in a Chapter 13 case you may only pay the $10,000 tax plus prior-accrued $1,200 of interest. Assuming no tax lien and a successfully completed 0% Chapter 13 case, you’d be paying about $11,200 instead of as much as $20,000. (In a 0% case there’s no money for the general unsecured debts.)

The Chapter 13 Plan

To keep this explanation as straightforward as possible, assume you owe this IRS tax debt and only other simple debts. That is, all your other debts are “general unsecured” ones. They are not secured—such as a vehicle loan, home mortgage, and a debt with any other collateral. They are not special, priority debts like unpaid child support or other recent tax debts. Chapter 13 is actually often very good at handling multiple secured and priority debts. In fact it’s often the very best tool if your situation is complicated with such other tough debts. But for the sake of this example we focus on how Chapter 13 handles this single income tax debt.

So assume you have a lot of medical bills, credit cards, and/or other general unsecured debts—say $90,000 total. Your prior accrued income tax penalties of $3,650 are also general unsecured debts, so now the total is $93,650. This plus the 2016 tax-plus-interest amount of $11,200 means you have just under $105,000 in debt. Here’s how a Chapter 13 plan with these debts could look like.

You and your bankruptcy lawyer would put together your monthly budget. Let’s say that after subtracting you and family’s reasonable living expenses from your monthly income, you’d have $385 per month left in “disposable income.” That would not even come close to paying monthly payments on your $105,000 or so of debt.

The Great Result Here

But this $385 amount would be enough—just enough—to pay off your IRS debt in full in just 3 years. $385 for 36 months is enough to pay off the $10,000 base tax, plus the $1,200 in already accrued interest. It would also pay a relatively modest amount of Chapter 13 trustee’s fees (generally a set percentage of whatever you pay into your payment plan) and your own attorney’s fees (whatever you didn’t pay before filing your case). The law usually allows (indeed requires) these “administrative costs” to get paid before the general unsecured debts receive anything.

So in this example $385 per month for 36 months would pay off the $11,200 priority portion of your tax debt. ($10,000 + $1,200.) But beyond that there would not be any money for the general unsecured debts. This means there would be nothing for the $3,850 in prior accrued tax penalties.

As a result all of your “disposable income” during the 3 years of the plan would go just to pay the tax and prior interest. (Plus the mandatory “administrative costs.”)  Then after the 36th month of payments, your Chapter 13 plan would be finished. At that point all of your general unsecured debts would be legally discharged. This includes the $3,850 in prior tax penalties. In addition, the IRS would then wipe off its books any penalties and interest that would have accrued since the date of your Chapter 13 filing.

After only paying the $10,000 tax plus $1,200 in prior interest, you’d owe the IRS nothing. You’d also be free and clear of all the rest of your debts. After paying only as much as your budget allowed for 3 years, you’d have a completely fresh financial start.

 

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Attorney Robert Firth works with clients throughout the Coachella Valley and all courts throughout Riverside & San Bernardino Counties. We regularly work with clients in Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Indio, La Quinta, Rancho Mirage, Indian Wells, Desert Hot Springs, Yucca Valley, El Centro and Imperial County.

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