Can the Bankruptcy Court Take My Income Tax Refund?

Short answer, yes: the Trustee administering a bankruptcy case is permitted to take a tax refund that is paid to the debtor from the IRS (as well as any State tax refund).

The theory is that such refund is an asset of the debtor that can be used to pay creditors.

But there is one consideration, however.

There is a complicated formula for determining the amount of the refund that can be taken by the Trustee. Further, the debtor is free to utilize any cash or wild card exemptions that may be available to him or her (or whatever amount is not utilized on other assets) to shield the refund from being claimed by the Trustee.

These exemptions are detailed in full for each District within the content of Standard Legal’s Bankruptcy legal forms software.