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Bankruptcy, 401K's, and Spouses income....

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What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Indiana

I have a few questions....

1. Are 401K's exempt during a bankruptcy? It is only a year old and I am not contributing since I can no longer afford to...

2. My spouse makes 75% of our income. He has a teenage son, and pays a lot of bills. He will be paying for college next year. He makes the house payment, buys groceries, and pays the electric bill. What do I need to have that proves that his income does not pay my bills. Most of my debt occurred prior to our marriage. It is almost all credit card debt that I accumulated to pay a lawyer during a child custody case, to pay funeral expenses for my dad and son, and to pay for medical bills from several illnesses and a broken leg.

3. If we file joint taxes this year and receive a return will the court take all of it, half of it, or less since I make about 25% of our income?

4. Will the court take into account the money I pay for child support each week? (I am not behind, I am not trying to file bankruptcy on my child support!)

5. Should I wait until we file our taxes and receive the refund before I file bankruptcy?

6. I have been paying all of my bills, but I am out of money. What should I do? Should I stop paying and tell them that I am going to file bankruptcy?

I have looked for a debt consolidation program. I have looked at debt reduction programs. Most of what I find is a scam. The legit programs won't take me, because they said that they would advise me to file bankruptcy.

I don't want to file bankruptcy, but I also don't want to live the rest of my life with bad credit, debt hanging over my head, judgements, etc. I don't want to be afraid to answer the phone. I already had a creditor calling me for someone who doesn't even live with me, and that was bad enough. I cannot imagine if all of mine were calling 20,20,30,+ times a day each!
 


bigun

Senior Member
ERISA qualified accounts like 401K's are exempt assets in bk.
Your husbands income will have to be disclosed for means testing purposes but, his expenses will be deducted further down the schedules.
Child support is an allowable expense.
As to the tax refund question. A lawyer familar with the pratices in your district can best answe this one. You may well have enough wildcard exemptions that it's a non issue.
Most bk lawyers give free or lowcost initial consultations. Speak with a few and see what they say.
 

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