Does Means Test Include Income Earned By Non-filing Live-in Companions?

Many Chapter 7 means tests involve issues about the size of a household and computations of household income. Consider the following questions posed in an email. A prospective debtor lives with his young child and the child’s mother. The debtor and mother are not married. The debtor and his girlfriend have separate bank accounts, ad they share payment of household bills. The debtor wants to know if his means test includes income earned by the unmarried girlfriend.

A debtor’s household includes all people living with the debtor. Income earned by any member of the household and used to pay household expenses is included in the debtor’s income for purposes of the means test. Marriage is not relevant. Means test income includes all income earned by a live-in companion, life partner, or even a working child. Rental income from investment property is included also, although mortgage payments for the investment property would be an offsetting expense. In this example, the girlfriend’s income would be included in the debtor’s means test income.

posted by Jonathan Alper, bankruptcy and asset protection attorney, Orlando, Florida