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Download the Official Form & Instructions

Official Instructions:

The fee for filing a bankruptcy case under chapter 7 is $335. If you cannot afford to pay the entire fee now in full or in installments within 120 days, use this form. If you can afford to pay your filing fee in installments, see Application for Individuals to Pay the Filing Fee in Installments (Official Form 103A).

If you file this form, you are asking the court to waive your fee. After reviewing your application, the court may waive your fee, set a hearing for further investigation, or require you to pay the fee in installments or in full.

For your fee to be waived, all of these statements must be true:

  • You are filing for bankruptcy under chapter 7.

  •   You are an individual.

  •   The total combined monthly income for your family is less than 150% of the official poverty guideline last published by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). (For more information about the guidelines, go to https://www.uscourts.gov/rules-policies/judiciary-policies/bankruptcy-case- policies.)

  •   You cannot afford to pay the fee in installments.

Your family includes you, your spouse, and any dependents listed on Schedule I. Your family may be different from your household, referenced on Schedules I and J. Your household may include your unmarried partner and others who live with you and with whom you share income and expenses.

If a bankruptcy petition preparer helped you complete this form, make sure that person fills out Bankruptcy Petition Preparer’s Notice, Declaration, and Signature (Official Form 119); include a copy of it when you file this application.

If you have already completed the following forms, the information on them may help you when you fill out this application:

  •   Schedule A/B: Property (Official Form 106A/B)

  •   Schedule I: Your Income (Official Form 106I)

  •   Schedule J: Your Expenses (Official Form 106J)

    This form includes a proposed order for use by the court in considering the application. The court may modify the form of the order or use its own version of the order.

COMMITTEE NOTE:

The form number is updated to comport with the form numbering style developed as part of the Forms Modernization Project. Other stylistic changes were made throughout the form.

 

HHS Poverty Guidelines for 2023

Source:  https://aspe.hhs.gov/topics/poverty-economic-mobility/poverty-guidelines

2023 POVERTY GUIDELINES FOR THE 48 CONTIGUOUS STATES AND THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Persons in family/household Poverty guideline 150%
1 $14,580 $21,870
2 $19,720 $29,580
3 $24,860 $37,290
4 $30,000 $45,000
5 $35,140 $52,710
6 $40,280 $60.420
7 $45,420 $68,130
8 $50,560 $75,840
For families/households with more than 8 persons, add $5,140 for each additional person. (150%=$7,710)

Rules for Fee Waivers

Soure: Guide to Judiciary Policy, Vol. 4, Ch. 8

§ 820 Chapter 7 Fee Waiver Procedures

The Judicial Conference promulgated these procedures to assist district courts and bankruptcy courts with implementing the fee waiver provisions in Section 418 of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 (Pub. L. No. 109-8, 199 Stat. 23), as codified at 28 U.S.C. § 1930(f)(1)-(3). JCUS-SEP 2013, pp. 8-9.

§ 820.10 Filing Fee Waiver Application and Initiation of the Chapter 7 Case

  1. (a)  Instead of paying the prescribed chapter 7 filing fee or filing an installment application, an individual debtor may, along with the bankruptcy petition, file an application to waive the filing fee. See: 28 U.S.C. § 1930(f)(1).

    1. (1)  Federal Rule of Bankruptcy Procedure 1006(c) requires that the application be “prepared as prescribed by the appropriate Official Form” (Official Form 103B).

    2. (2)  A defective or otherwise deficient waiver application should be processed according to the court’s standard operating procedures for processing deficient pleadings and papers.

  2. (b)  When a chapter 7 petition in an individual debtor case is accompanied by an application to waive the filing fee, the court should initiate and process the case in the same manner as other individual chapter 7 cases.

§ 820.20 Judicial Determination of Filing Fee Waiver Applications

(a) Standard of Eligibility

(1) Under 28 U.S.C. § 1930(f)(1-3), the district court or bankruptcy court may waive the chapter 7 filing fee for an individual debtor who:

(A) has income less than 150 percent of the income official poverty line applicable to a family of the size involved; and

(Note: Since the Office of Management and Budget has never issued official poverty thresholds, these procedures interpret this statutory language to refer to the poverty guidelines updated periodically in the Federal Register by the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) under the authority of 42 U.S.C. § 9902(2). The Secretary of Health and Human Services is required to update the poverty guidelines annually, and defines guidelines separate for the 48 contiguous states and the District of Columbia, Alaska, and Hawaii. The DHHS does not define poverty guidelines for Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and Palau. For these areas, the guidelines for the 48 contiguous states and the District of Columbia may be used. See: DHHS guidelines on USCourts.gov.)

(B) is unable to pay that fee in installments.

  1. (2)  The DHHS does not publish a standard definition of income, leaving the determination of that definition to individual program administrators.

    1. (A)  These procedures adopt a definition that is reasonable in the bankruptcy context.

    2. (B)  The income for comparison to the poverty guidelines is the ‟Total Combined Monthly Income” as reported (or as will be reported) on Schedule I.

    3. (C)  Amounts received as non-cash government assistance must be deducted from the total amount reported on Schedule I for fee waiver consideration.

  2. (3)  ‟Family size” may be defined as the debtor(s), the debtor’s spouse (unless the spouses are separated and a joint petition is not being filed), and any dependents listed on Schedule I.

    Note: The DHHS uses the term ‟family unit” instead of ‟family size” but does not publish a standard definition of ‟family unit.”

  3. (4)  The district court or bankruptcy court should consider the totality of the circumstances in determining whether the debtor is unable to pay the fee in installments as provided in 28 U.S.C. § 1930(f)(1). Official Form 103B elicits information relevant to this determination.

  4. (5)  A debtor may qualify for a waiver of the filing fee even if the debtor has paid or promised to pay a bankruptcy attorney, bankruptcy petition preparer, or debt relief agency in connection with the filing.

    Note: In 2008, Fed. R. Bankr. P. 1006(b)(1) was amended to delete the sentence requiring a statement in the installment fee application that the debtor has not paid an attorney or other person in connection with the case. In the installment fee application, debtors must certify they will not make additional payment or transfer any additional property to an attorney or other person for services in connection with the case until the filing fee is paid in full.

    (b) Initial Court Procedures

    1. (1)  Filing Fees, Fee Waiver Application, Notice

      1. (A)  “Filing fee” as defined at 28 U.S.C. § 1930(f)(1), means the filing fee required by § 1930(a) or any other fee prescribed by the Judicial Conference under § 1930(b) and (c) that is payable to the clerk upon the commencement of a case under chapter 7. This includes Items 8 and 9 of theBankruptcy Court Miscellaneous Fee Schedule.

      2. (B)  The court should promptly determine whether the fee waiver application should be granted, denied, or set for early hearing, on notice to the United States trustee or bankruptcy administrator, the case trustee, the debtor, and, if applicable, the attorney for the debtor.

      3. (C)  The order on the fee waiver should be transmitted to the United States trustee or bankruptcy administrator, the case trustee, the debtor, and, if applicable, the attorney for the debtor.

    2. (2)  Denial of Fee Waiver

      1. (A)  Any order denying a filing fee waiver application may give the debtor a reasonable time in which to either pay the fee in full or begin making installment payments.

      2. (B)  The order denying the fee waiver application should establish an installment payment schedule.

      3. (C)  It also should advise the debtor that failure to pay the fee or make timely installment payments may lead to dismissal of the case.

      4. (D)  A standard order is included with Official Form 103B.

    3. (3)  Conversion to Chapter 7

      If a case is converted from another chapter to chapter 7, the court may waive any unpaid balance on the filing fee if the conditions described in section (a)(1) are satisfied.


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Jurisdictional relevance: US

Legal Consumer - Neshoba County, MSLaw. The content of this article pertains to all US states and counties.