Q: Sir, I had filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy back in 2018. Will I give the Trustee my stimulus check which was approved?
A:
According to a notice from the Justice Department, Trustees are limited in terms of what they can do with the stimulus payments. A stimulus check won’t be considered while calculating monthly income, and won’t be used in the calculation of disposable income that can be paid to creditors. This means receiving a stimulus payment won’t force an individual to repay a higher amount in bankruptcy than they would have if they hadn’t received it.
There are rare cases where the stimulus payments might be considered property of the estate, meaning it can be included in the pool of assets designated to repay debt, but the designated Trustee would have to notify the U.S. Trustee prior to taking this action or refusing a chapter 13 repayment plan.
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