Youre’ going to file Chapter 13 but you think your income might change over the next 60 months. Will that cause your plan payment to change?

The answer to that question is … probably. You have to submit tax returns usually within 45 days after you’ve filed them to the Chapter 13 trustee for every year while you’re in bankruptcy. That gives the trustee the opportunity to see if you’re income has significantly improved from the time when you got your plan confirmed.

This is important because under the bankruptcy laws, you need to pay over all of your net disposal income during 60 months after you file bankruptcy in order to get a Chapter 13 discharge. So if your income is increasing during that time, the Chapter 13 trustee needs to monitor that to make sure that you are complying with that law.

On the other side of the coin, if your income goes down during that 60-month period, you can petition the court to reduce your Chapter 13 payments because of a change in your circumstances.