When you complete your Chapter 13 repayment plan, you'll receive a discharge order that will wipe out the remaining balance of qualifying debt. In fact, a Chapter 13 bankruptcy discharge is even broader than a Chapter 7 discharge because it wipes out certain debts in Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
Read on to learn more about which debts get discharged at the end of Chapter 13 bankruptcy.
Not sure which chapter to file? Start by reading What Are the Differences Between Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 Bankruptcy?
You'll find a complete overview of the bankruptcy process in What You Need to Know to File for Bankruptcy in 2022.
Not all debts are treated equally in bankruptcy. Each debt falls into a particular category, which tells you whether the debt must be paid or whether it can be discharged.
A Chapter 13 repayment plan will lay out separate instructions for paying each of these three types of debt. Here are a few of the significant details:
Once you've completed your Chapter 13 repayment plan, most remaining nonpriority unsecured debt balances will get discharged. Student loan balances are a notable exception—you'll remain responsible for those (at least for the present).
Below are some of the most common types of nonpriority unsecured debts. Typically, any balances on these accounts will be discharged at the end of the Chapter 13 plan.
Some debtors who would otherwise be qualified to file a Chapter 7 case, choose to file a Chapter 13 to take advantage of Chapter 13's expanded discharge list. Below are some of the debts that will get discharged in Chapter 13 but not in Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
Through Chapter 13 bankruptcy you can discharge debts arising out of your willful and malicious damage to another person's property (the damage was intentional, not accidental) but not willful injury to another person.
If you pay your tax obligation using a credit card, that debt is normally considered nondischargeable in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy. However, in Chapter 13 you can discharge debts you incurred to pay nondischargeable tax obligations.
Domestic support obligations such as alimony or child support are always nondischargeable. However, through Chapter 13 bankruptcy, you can discharge your obligation to your spouse or former spouse for other debts assigned to you in divorce or separation proceedings.
Example. Let's assume in your divorce decree you were assigned and required to pay the entirety of a joint credit card you held with your spouse. If you don't pay it, the credit card company can go after both you and your former spouse, despite the family court order assigning the debt to you. You are broke and fail to pay the balance. Consider the following results, which vary depending on which type of bankruptcy you file:
When you let go of a home in a Chapter 7 case, you'll remain responsible for property taxes, utility bills, and homeowners' dues until the home's title is no longer in your name (in other words, until the lender sells it in foreclosure). Some bankruptcy courts, but not all, don't hold you responsible for homeowners' dues if you surrender your home as a part of a Chapter 13 plan.
You'll be able to discharge obligations you owe to a city, county, state, or other governmental agency in Chapter 13 bankruptcy, including those arising from fraud. However, you'll have to pay any restitution or a criminal fine incurred in criminal sentencing.
If the court found that you weren't entitled to a discharge in a previous bankruptcy case (perhaps you didn't meet the Chapter 7 means test) or if you waived your discharge, you might be able to get rid of debt in Chapter 13. If a judge declared a particular debt nondischargeable, however, you won't be able to get rid of it by filing another case.
Typically, bankruptcy doesn't get rid of a creditor's security interest (such as a mortgage or car lender's lien) on your property. However, if certain conditions are satisfied (for instance, the debt isn't fully secured by the collateral, and the property is worth less than what's owed) Chapter 13 bankruptcy allows you to strip off a wholly unsecured junior lien or cram down a secured debt (reduce the loan to match the property value). The stripped or reduced portion gets reclassified as an unsecured debt and discharged at the end of the case. (To learn more, see What is Lien Stripping in Chapter 13 Bankruptcy? For more information on cramdowns, go to Cramdowns in Chapter 13 Bankruptcy: The Basics.)
A few other debts you'll be able to discharge include:
Before you receive a discharge in Chapter 13 bankruptcy, you have to pay back a certain amount of your debts through a repayment plan. But your repayment isn't dependent on the total amount of debt that you owe. Rather, your repayment plan amount depends on the type of debt you have, the value of your property, your income, and your expenses.
Specifically, you're required to pay the greater of the following to your unsecured creditors:
The bankruptcy trustee pays creditors depending on the priority of the particular debt. Certain priority debts (such as recent taxes, alimony, and child support) must be paid in full, unlike nonpriority unsecured debts.
And while it's possible that you might pay less than what you owe (especially if you have a lot of credit card or medical debt), if all of your debt is priority debt, such as recent income tax balances and support obligations, then you'll repay it all.
After you complete all plan payments, any remaining qualifying balances get wiped out. Creditors can no longer come after you to collect those debts.
To learn more, see Unsecured Debt in Chapter 13: How Much Will You Pay?
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