If you or your spouse decides to go bankrupt, unfortunately you will have to include your spouse’s income along with yours no matter whether you are going for a Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy. Your New Albany bankruptcy attorney will explain this to you, and will also tell you about the marital adjustment deduction.
Expenses
What this deduction is that you can have your spouse list all of her personal expenses. These are classed as expenses that do not pertain to the supporting of your household. This amount then gets deducted from her income that you are required to declare. Often with couples they have their own credit cards that they are responsible for. Or perhaps your spouse is paying off some previous student loans. Or maybe she is paying into her personal retirement plan.
It is important that you do this so you can reduce the amount of income that you have to declare. If your income is too high then you won’t qualify in the means test for the Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Also, your income combined with what you have to declare for your spouse will have an effect on what your payment arrangements will be.
It can be difficult knowing what all the legalities are concerning bankruptcy. Before making the decision to use this financial relief option, you should check out to see if there are any other solutions. If this is not the case, then choosing the right bankruptcy option pertaining to your financial situation is important.
