WHAT IS THE BANKRUPTCY “MEANS TEST”?

Your eligibility for bankruptcy protection is determined in part by your household income. The Bankruptcy Code requires that you calculate your median income by looking at your gross income earned by you, your spouse and any other working member of your household during the 6 months proceeding the current month. You then have to add up all the income and divide by 6 to arrive at a number. This number is then compared to a median income table provided to us by the Census Bureau and the United States Trustee’s office. This calculation is called the “median income test.”
If you are over the median income, then a presumption of abuse arises as to your eligibility for a Chapter 7 bankruptcy and you must proceed to perform additional calculations (these additional calculations are called the “means test.”).
The addition of the median income and the means test to the consumer bankruptcy process has made bankruptcy a lot more complicated both for lawyers and for individuals. Many lawyers who used to handle bankruptcy cases no longer do so because of the complexity of the median income/means test process. My best advice is to speak with an experienced lawyer about your case. Ask the lawyer how long they have been filing bankruptcy cases for clients and how many cases they file a year. As with most things in life, experience matters. An experience Utah bankruptcy lawyer can be found HERE.