Housing allowance on Form 22C for joint debtors living apart
Posted: Sat May 14, 2011 9:48 am
I just had this situation myself in a Chap 7, where spouses were separated, no kids. Before I filed, I did some research on it, and according to the cases I read, its perfectly acceptable to put in the additional housing expenses, EXCEPT that you MUST go back and adjust the non-mortgage housing and utility expenses to the amount for one person before doing so. THEN, you add the additional housing/living expenses for the spouse in line 21 or whatever it is, AND, those additional expenses are still limited to those allowed by the IRS for one person. If you simply click "married," your program (Best Case for me) will most likely say household of two, use all expenses for two, so that when you add the additional expenses in line 21, you've essentially made expenses for three. Having said all that, it seems clear that nobody is likely going to make such a fuss, but I believe technically those cases which have said that are correct. I'm thinking I still have them in this particular case file - I'll look.
In my situation, Debtor lived in the home and paid the mortgage payment. Separated spouse lived in an apartment and paid for that. He took the mortgage payment, we reduced other non-mortgage housing and utility expenses to the IRS amount for one, then put in the one-person amounts for housing and non-mortgage housing/utility costs in line 21 for her. Everything else, like food, stays the same of course.
Todd Mannis, Esq.
>
> In that situation I put the "other" spouses household expenses on the line that talks about amounts in excess of the allowance and list it as "wife's rent and utilities in separate household". Sorry don't have the form in front of me now.
> Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
>
> -----Original Message-----
> Sender: cdcbaa@yahoogroups.com
> Date: Fri, 13 May 2011 18:44:54
> To:
> Reply-To: cdcbaa@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [cdcbaa] Housing allowance on Form 22C for joint debtors living apart
>
> Just wondering if there's a specific place on Form 22C (or Form 22A
> for that matter) to add in housing expenses for 2 spouses living in
> two different dwellings. I have a H&W who have been separated for 4
> years but they want to file BK together. One owns a house with a
> mortgage payment that's LOWER than the standard housing allowance,
> and the other rents a place that is HIGHER than the housing
> allowance. Anyway, is this one of those things to add to special
> circumstances, or does it get taken care of on line 26 for the
> housing adjustment, or what?
>
> Thanks in advance and have a good weekend all.
>
>
>
> *************************
> Mark J. Markus
> Law Office of Mark J. Markus
> 11684 Ventura Blvd. PMB #403
> Studio City, CA 91604-2652
> (818)509-1173 (818)509-1460 (fax)
> web: http://www.bklaw.com/
> This Firm is a Qualified Federal Debt Relief Agency (see what this
> means at
> http://bklaw.com/bankruptcy-blog/2008/0 ... efinition/)
> ________________________________________________
> NOTICE: This Electronic Message contains information from the law
> office of Mark J. Markus that may be privileged. The information is
> intended for the use of the addressee only. If you are not the
> addressee, note that any disclosure, copy, distribution or use of
> the contents of this message is prohibited.
> IRS CIRCULAR 230 NOTICE: To ensure compliance with requirements
> imposed by the IRS, we inform you that any U.S. tax advice contained
> in this communication (or in any attachment) is not intended or
> written to be used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of (i)
> avoiding penalties under the Internal Revenue Code or (ii)
> promoting, marketing or recommending to another party any
> transaction or matter addressed in this communication.
>
The post was migrated from Yahoo.