11 U.S.C. 523: Nondischargeable Debts in Chapter 7 and 13

Bankruptcy erases most debts, but federal law keeps a specific list alive no matter which chapter you file. Under 11 U.S.C. § 523, the debts that cannot be discharged in bankruptcy include child support and alimony, most divorce-related obligations, many tax debts, student loans, debts obtained by fraud, debts for injury or death caused by drunk driving, criminal fines and restitution, securities fraud judgments, certain condo and HOA fees, and any debt you failed to list on your bankruptcy schedules.¹ A few of these can be wiped out in Chapter 13 even though they survive Chapter 7, which is worth knowing before you choose a chapter.

Child Support and Alimony

Domestic support obligations are the most protected debts in the entire bankruptcy system. Child support and alimony cannot be discharged in any chapter.¹ The Code defines a domestic support obligation as a debt owed to a spouse, former spouse, child, or a child’s parent or guardian that functions as support, whatever the divorce decree happened to call it.²

Labels don’t control. A payment called “property equalization” in the decree will still be treated as non-dischargeable support if the court decides it was really meant to maintain a dependent spouse or child. Income disparity, custody arrangements, and the parties’ negotiations all factor in.

Other Divorce-Related Debts

Divorce often creates obligations beyond support, like agreeing to pay a joint credit card or reimbursing a former spouse for their share of a retirement account. In Chapter 7, these property settlement debts survive discharge even though they aren’t support.¹

Chapter 13 handles them differently. Property settlement obligations that aren’t support can be discharged when a debtor completes a Chapter 13 plan.³ If your bankruptcy is being driven by a substantial divorce-related debt, the choice of chapter matters a lot.

Tax Debts

Some old income taxes really can be wiped out, but every rule has to line up. Three timing tests and two conduct rules control it, and getting any one of them wrong means the debt stays.

The timing tests: the return had to be due, including any extensions, more than three years before you filed for bankruptcy. If you filed the return late, you had to have filed it more than two years before your petition date. And the IRS must have assessed the tax more than 240 days before the filing, with certain events (like an offer in compromise) pausing that clock.¹⁴ All three tests have to be satisfied at the same time.

Behavior blocks discharge no matter how old the tax is. Fraudulent returns and willful attempts to evade the tax are permanently non-dischargeable, and so is any tax where you never filed a return at all. A substitute for return that the IRS prepared for you doesn’t count as your filing.¹

Business owners face an extra trap. Payroll taxes withheld from employees’ checks but never sent to the IRS (trust fund taxes) are non-dischargeable in every chapter, including Chapter 13.⁴³

Student Loans

Federal and private student loans both survive bankruptcy unless you prove that repaying them would impose an undue hardship on you and your dependents.¹ Educational benefit overpayments and scholarship repayment obligations fall under the same rule. You cannot raise undue hardship as a defense inside your main case; you have to file a separate adversary proceeding and get the court to rule on it.⁵

Most federal circuits apply a strict three-part test from Brunner v. New York State Higher Education Services Corp.: current inability to maintain a minimal standard of living while repaying, circumstances unlikely to improve for much of the repayment period, and a good-faith effort to repay before filing. The Eighth Circuit uses a broader totality-of-circumstances approach. In practice, courts apply the standard strictly, and full discharges remain uncommon.

For federal student loans, since November 2022 the Department of Justice has used a streamlined attestation process that lets the government agree to a discharge without a contested trial when the debtor’s documented income, expenses, and employment history show undue hardship.⁶⁷ The legal standard is the same; the process is just less expensive to run.

Debts from Fraud, Theft, or Intentional Harm

If you obtained money, property, or services through fraud, the resulting debt is not discharged. That covers active deception, like telling a lender your income is four times what it actually is. A narrower rule covers written statements about your financial condition that were materially false, that the creditor reasonably relied on, and that you made intending to deceive.¹

Mishandling someone else’s money also survives. Fraud or mismanagement while acting as a trustee or in another formal position of trust, and outright embezzlement or theft, all fall into this category. The fiduciary language generally requires a formal trust relationship, so being someone’s business partner or contractor isn’t usually enough on its own.¹

Debts for intentional injury to a person or property are non-dischargeable when you intended the harmful consequences, not just the act. A fight you started qualifies; a car accident caused by distracted driving generally does not.¹

Recent Spending Before Filing

The law flags certain last-minute spending automatically. As of April 1, 2025, consumer debts of more than $900 to a single creditor for luxury goods or services incurred within 90 days before filing are presumed non-dischargeable. Cash advances of more than $1,250 in the aggregate, taken within 70 days before filing, trigger the same presumption.⁸

“Presumed non-dischargeable” shifts the burden onto you. Instead of the creditor proving fraud, the court starts by assuming it, and you have to show a legitimate reason for the spending. That’s a hard fight to win. If bankruptcy is on your horizon, stop using credit cards for anything that isn’t a necessity.

Drunk Driving Injuries and Deaths

Debts for death or personal injury caused by operating a vehicle while intoxicated cannot be discharged.¹ The rule covers alcohol, drugs, or any other impairing substance, and it applies to motor vehicles, boats, and aircraft. It reaches judgments, settlements, and consent decrees from the incident. Property-damage-only claims from drunk driving aren’t covered by this provision specifically, though depending on the facts they might fall under the general intentional-harm rule.

Government Fines and Criminal Restitution

Fines and penalties payable to a government agency survive bankruptcy when they punish rather than compensate. A fine for breaking a regulation is non-dischargeable; a payment that reimburses the government for actual losses may be dischargeable. What matters is the function of the obligation.¹

Federal criminal restitution is separately and explicitly non-dischargeable, and criminal fines included in a sentence survive a Chapter 13 discharge as well.³

Securities Fraud

Debts from violations of federal or state securities laws, or from common law fraud connected to buying or selling securities, cannot be discharged.¹ Judgments, consent orders, settlements, and administrative fines for insider trading, Ponzi schemes, and similar misconduct all follow you through bankruptcy.

HOA and Condo Fees

Homeowners’ association and condominium fees that come due after you file are non-dischargeable as long as you keep living in the unit or receiving rental income from it.¹ Arrears that predate your bankruptcy filing are typically dischargeable in Chapter 7.

Debts You Failed to List

You have to list every creditor when you file. Leave a debt off your schedules, and if the creditor doesn’t otherwise find out about the case in time to participate, the debt survives your discharge.¹ If the creditor actually knew about the bankruptcy in time despite being left off the paperwork, the debt can still be discharged.

The creditor’s side has a deadline too. To challenge a specific debt as non-dischargeable for fraud, fiduciary misconduct, or intentional harm, the creditor must file a complaint within 60 days after the first date set for the meeting of creditors. Missing that window means the debt gets discharged with everything else, even if it would have qualified as an exception.

What Chapter 13 Can Discharge That Chapter 7 Cannot

Chapter 13’s discharge is broader than Chapter 7’s. A debtor who completes a three-to-five-year plan can wipe out some debts that would have survived Chapter 7.³

Non-dischargeable in both chapters:

Domestic support obligations (child support and alimony)
Fraud-based debts, and debts from fiduciary misconduct, embezzlement, or theft
Student loans, absent a finding of undue hardship
Drunk driving debts for death or personal injury
Tax debts involving late-filed returns, unfiled returns, or tax fraud
Trust fund payroll taxes
Debts you failed to list where the creditor lacked notice

Non-dischargeable in Chapter 7 but potentially dischargeable in Chapter 13:

Property settlement debts from divorce that aren’t support
Debts for willful and malicious injury to property (personal injury and death still survive)
Government fines and penalties unrelated to tax fraud
HOA and condo fees
Securities fraud debts

This wider discharge is sometimes called the Chapter 13 superdischarge. The tradeoff is time: Chapter 13 requires three to five years of plan payments, while Chapter 7 usually finishes in a few months. Whether the broader discharge is worth the longer commitment depends on which debts you actually carry, so match the chapter to the list above before you file.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 523 – Exceptions to Discharge
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 101 – Definitions
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 1328 – Discharge
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 507 – Priorities
5
Department of Justice. Guidance for Department Attorneys Regarding Student Loan Bankruptcy Litigation
6
Department of Justice. Student Loan Guidance
7
Department of Justice. Attestation In Support of Request for Stipulation Conceding Dischargeability of Student Loans
8
Federal Register. Adjustment of Certain Dollar Amounts Applicable to Bankruptcy Cases