Comments on: Means Test Musings http://www.thebklawyer.com/thebkblog/2006/05/22/means-test-musings/ Personal Bankruptcy tips and tricks moderated by Atlanta lawyer Jonathan Ginsberg Fri, 30 Jul 2010 18:06:13 +0000 hourly 1 By: Jonathan http://www.thebklawyer.com/thebkblog/2006/05/22/means-test-musings/#comment-980 Jonathan Thu, 13 Jul 2006 15:09:47 +0000 http://host.jonathanginsberg.com/~thebklaw/thebkblog/?p=32#comment-980 <p>Dorothy: I met with one of the U.S. Trustee's trial attorneys and went over both my form B22A and the "B22A Statement Comparative Analysis" that the Trustee's office prepared. The trustee's position is that vehicle leases are not secured debts - they should therefore appear on Schedule F as an unsecured debt. As such there should not be a secured debt payment for the lease at line 42. Instead, if you look at lines 22, 23, and 24, there are allocations for operating costs (line 22) and ownership costs (lines 23 and 24). That is, apparently, where the lease payments need to go. I am looking at the trustee prepared comparative analysis and it has both ownership and operating costs in the column prepared by the trustee, so I don't see how the trustee's office can refuse to permit both operation and ownership as they are obviously two different expense categories. The problem that I had was that the permitted ownership cost allocation was less than the actual lease payment, leaving "disposable" income. In my case, I ended up converting to a 13.</p> <p>Also, don't forget that if you are preparing a Chapter 13, you need to put in a step provision to increase the payment as of the date that the lease ends.</p> Dorothy: I met with one of the U.S. Trustee's trial attorneys and went over both my form B22A and the "B22A Statement Comparative Analysis" that the Trustee's office prepared. The trustee's position is that vehicle leases are not secured debts – they should therefore appear on Schedule F as an unsecured debt. As such there should not be a secured debt payment for the lease at line 42. Instead, if you look at lines 22, 23, and 24, there are allocations for operating costs (line 22) and ownership costs (lines 23 and 24). That is, apparently, where the lease payments need to go. I am looking at the trustee prepared comparative analysis and it has both ownership and operating costs in the column prepared by the trustee, so I don't see how the trustee's office can refuse to permit both operation and ownership as they are obviously two different expense categories. The problem that I had was that the permitted ownership cost allocation was less than the actual lease payment, leaving "disposable" income. In my case, I ended up converting to a 13.

Also, don't forget that if you are preparing a Chapter 13, you need to put in a step provision to increase the payment as of the date that the lease ends.

]]> By: Dorothy L Bjork, Esq. http://www.thebklawyer.com/thebkblog/2006/05/22/means-test-musings/#comment-979 Dorothy L Bjork, Esq. Wed, 12 Jul 2006 20:19:01 +0000 http://host.jonathanginsberg.com/~thebklaw/thebkblog/?p=32#comment-979 <p>Did you get an answer to the lease vehicle issue? I have a similar issue: The US Trustee has objected on the basis that since the Debtor does not have a car payment, he cannot take the deduction for the national vehicle ownership allowance. This does not seem equitible since if he had a $1 secured payment, he could take the balance of the allowance. The Best Case program automatically inputs the "ownership allowance" if a vehicle is entered in the "operation allowance" (Plus, if he didn't have any vehicle, the operation allowance would be higher!) Any ideas? Thanks, Dorothy</p> Did you get an answer to the lease vehicle issue? I have a similar issue: The US Trustee has objected on the basis that since the Debtor does not have a car payment, he cannot take the deduction for the national vehicle ownership allowance. This does not seem equitible since if he had a $1 secured payment, he could take the balance of the allowance. The Best Case program automatically inputs the "ownership allowance" if a vehicle is entered in the "operation allowance" (Plus, if he didn't have any vehicle, the operation allowance would be higher!) Any ideas? Thanks, Dorothy

]]>