Go to www.irs.gov and search for: IRS Collection Financial Standards If you are considering filing a bankruptcy, this will give you the budget that many U.S. Trustees consider fair when filing a Chapter 7 or 13. When you find the links you can see what a "fair" budget is for your car, clothes, food expenses, health, etc per month. I myself think they are really lowballing because they want to collect as much as possible if someone should owe them money! This is one of the links but I urge you to do a search for a more complete listing: http://www.irs.gov/irs/display/0,,i1=46&genericId=13431,00.html I passed these numbers by my lawyer and he confirmed that the Trustee has the right to object to any budget in Chapter 7 or 13 if the numbers exceed the IRS standard. Of course they can be nice and of course look the other way if your budget numbers exceed these... Good luck if you are considering filing. Keep up to date at www.abiworld.org of the bankruptcy legislation moving through Congress. Robert
Robert, They allow quite a bit for food, based on what you are bringing in. When my husband and I filed bankruptcy, The total the IRS allows is far over what was coming in.
OH I was just hoping that anyone who was NOt familiar with the U.S. Trustee's budget standards would have an idea of what a proper budget should be. My attorney said nothing about what I should be listing and the correct amounts. Knowledge is power and I can tell you that I won't be caught off guard when I go to the 341 meeting.
