Chapter 7 Statement of Your Current Monthly Income and Means Test Calculation (Official Forms 122A–1, 122A-1Supp, and 122A–2)
If you are filing under chapter 11, 12, or 13, do not fill out this form.
Official Forms 122A–1 and 122A–2 determine whether your income and expenses create a presumption of abuse that may prevent you from obtaining relief from your debts under chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy Code. Chapter 7 relief can be denied to a person who has primarily consumer debts if the court finds that the person has enough income to repay creditors an amount that, under the Bankruptcy Code, would be a sufficient portion of their claims.
You must file Chapter 7 Statement of Your Current Monthly Income (Official Form122A–1) if you are an individual filing for bankruptcy under chapter 7. This form will determine your current monthly income and compare whether your income is more than the median income for households of the same size in your state. If your income is not above the median, there is no presumption of abuse and you will not have to fill out the second form.
Similarly, Statement of Exemption from Presumption of Abuse Under § 707(b)(2) (Official Form 122A-1Supp) determines whether you may be exempted from the presumption of abuse because you do not have primarily consumer debts or because you have provided certain military or homeland defense services. If one of these exemptions applies, you should file a supplement, Form 122A-1Supp, and verify the supplement by completing Part 3 of Form 122A-1. If you qualify for an exemption, you are not required to fill out any part of Form 122A-1 other than the verification. If the exemptions do not apply, you should complete all of the parts of Form 122A-1 and file it without the supplemental form.
If you and your spouse are filing together, you and your spouse may file a single Form 122A-1. However, if an exemption on Form122A-1Supp applies to only one of you, separate forms may be required. 11 U.S.C. § 707(b)(2)(C).
If your completed Form 122A-1 shows income above the median, you must file the second form, Chapter 7 Means Test Calculation (Official Form 122A –2). The calculations on this form—sometimes called the Means Test—reduce your income by living expenses and payment of certain debts, resulting in an amount available to pay other debts. If this amount is high enough, it will give rise to a presumption of abuse. A presumption of abuse does not mean you are actually trying to abuse the bankruptcy system. Rather, the presumption simply means that you are presumed to have enough income that you should not be granted relief under chapter 7. You may overcome the presumption by showing special circumstances that reduce your income or increase your expenses.
If you can obtain relief under chapter 7, you may be eligible to continue under another chapter of the Bankruptcy Code and pay creditors over a period of time.
Read each question carefully. You may not be required to answer every question on this form. For example, your military status may determine whether you must fill out the entire form. The instructions will alert you if you may skip questions.
If you have nothing to report for a line, write $0.
Information for completing the forms
To fill out several lines of the forms, you must look up information provided on websites or from other sources. For information to complete line 13 of Form 122A-1 and lines 6-15, 30, and 36 of Form 122A-2, go to: www.justice.gov/ust/eo/bapcpa/meanstesting.htm
If your case is filed in Alabama or North Carolina, the administrative expense multiplier mentioned at line 36 can be found at: www.uscourts.gov/FederalCourts/Bankruptcy/BankruptcyResources/AdministrativeExpensesMultiplier.aspx .
For the Bankruptcy Basics information referred to on line 36 of Form 122A-2, go to: www.uscourts.gov/FederalCourts/Bankruptcy/BankruptcyBasics.aspx.
If you do not have a computer with internet access, you may be able to use a public computer at the bankruptcy clerk’s office or at a public library.
COMMITTEE NOTES
2022-04 STAFF NOTATION
The CARES Act changes Official Forms 122A-1, 122B, and 122C-1 described in the 2020-04 Committee Note lapsed on March 27, 2022. The three forms have reverted to their pre-CARES Act versions (December 2019 in the case of 122A-1, October 2019 as amended in December 2021 in the case of 122B, and October 2019 in the case of 122C-1).
In addition, the dollar amounts listed in lines 29 and 40 of 122A-2, and line 29 of 122C-2 are adjusted effective April 1, 2022, as part of the the tri-annual dollar adjustments required by 11 U.S.C.§ 104
2021-12 COMMITTEE NOTE
Official Form 122B is amended in response to the enactment of the Small Business Reorganization Act of 2019, Pub. L. No. 116-54, 133 Stat. 1079. That law gives a small business debtor the option of electing to be a debtor under subchapter V of chapter 11. As amended, the initial instruction in the form includes an exception for subchapter V cases. Because Code § 1129(a)(15) is inapplicable to such cases, there is no need for an individual debtor in a subchapter V case to file a statement of current monthly income.
2021-04 COMMITTEE NOTE
Official Forms 122A-1, 122B, and 122C-1 are amended in response to the enactment of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (the “CARES Act”), Pub. L. No. 116-136, 134 Stat. 281.1 That law modifies the definition of “current monthly income” in §101(10A) and the definition of “disposable income” in §1325(b)(2) to exclude “payments made under the Federal law relating to the national emergency declared by the President under the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.) with respect to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).” Each form is modified to expressly exclude these amounts from line 10. These amendments will terminate one year after the date of enactment of the CARES Act.
2019-12 COMMITTEE NOTE
The instruction on line 14a of Official Form 122A-1 is amended to remind a debtor for whom there is no presumption of abuse that Official Form 122A-2 (Chapter 7 Means Test Calculation) should not be filled out or filed.
2019-10 COMMITTEE NOTE
Official Forms 122A-1, 122B, and 122C-1 are amended in response to the enactment of the Honoring American Veterans in Extreme Need Act of 2019 (the “HAVEN Act”), Pub. L. No. 116-52, 133 Stat. 1076. That law modifies the definition of “current monthly income” in § 101(10A) to exclude certain amounts payable “in connection with a disability, combat-related injury or disability or death of a member of the uniformed services.” The exclusion for servicemember retired pay is limited, however, and the debtor should exclude from current monthly income only that amount of retired pay that exceeds the amount that the recipient would otherwise be entitled to receive had the recipient retired for a reason other than disability. Each form is modified to expressly exclude these amounts from lines 9 and 10.
2015 COMMITTEE NOTE
Official Forms 122A-1, 122A-1Supp, 122A-2, 122B, 122C-1, and 122C-2 are updated to comport with the form numbering style developed as part of the Forms Modernization Project. The forms are derived from Official Forms 22A-1, 22A-1Supp, 22A-2, 22B, 122C-1, and 22C-2.
A statement is added to line 26 of Forms 122A-2 and 122C-2 explaining that contributions to qualified ABLE accounts, as defined in 26 U.S.C. § 529A(b), may be included in the deduction for contributions to the care of household or family members. Authorization of the deduction of such contributions was added to Bankruptcy Code § 707(b)(2)(A)(ii)(II) by the Tax Increase Prevention Act of 2014, Pub. Law No. 113-295.
Official Forms 122A-1, 122B, and 122C-1 are revised to add a workspace column for debtor 2 at questions 5 and 6 on the forms. Official Form 122B is also revised to remove former Part 2. This portion of the form provided for the exclusion of certain income of a debtor’s non-filing spouse; since that income is not required to be reported, its exclusion is unnecessary.
Other stylistic changes were made throughout the forms.
