A bankruptcy discharge wipes out most unsecured consumer balances, but several categories of debt are not discharged in bankruptcy no matter which chapter you file. Child support and alimony, most recent tax debts, most student loans, government fines, criminal restitution, debts from drunk-driving injuries, and debts obtained through fraud or willful harm all survive the case. Secured debts add a twist: the discharge can erase your personal obligation to pay, but the lender’s lien on the house or car stays attached to the property.
What a Discharge Actually Does
A discharge is a permanent court order that bars creditors from collecting the covered debts. No more calls, letters, lawsuits, or wage garnishments on those balances.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 524 – Effect of Discharge The debt is not erased from history; your personal liability for it is. A creditor who ignores the order can be held in civil contempt.2United States Courts. Discharge in Bankruptcy – Bankruptcy Basics
The timing differs by chapter. Chapter 7 produces a discharge about three to four months after filing. Chapter 13 produces one only at the end of a three-to-five-year repayment plan. In either case, the order reaches only the debts the law allows to be eliminated. Everything else remains fully enforceable the day after your case closes.
Child Support and Alimony
Domestic support obligations are never discharged, under any chapter of the Bankruptcy Code.2United States Courts. Discharge in Bankruptcy – Bankruptcy Basics That covers child support, alimony, and spousal maintenance ordered through a divorce or family-court case. The automatic stay that halts most collection the moment you file does not stop collection of these obligations from property outside the bankruptcy estate, and family-court matters involving custody, visitation, paternity, and domestic violence also keep moving.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 362 – Automatic Stay Falling behind can still trigger license suspension, wage withholding, or contempt.
Tax Debts
Most tax debts survive bankruptcy. Older income tax can sometimes be discharged, but only when every one of three timing conditions is met:
- The return was originally due, including extensions, at least three years before you filed for bankruptcy.
- You actually filed that return at least two years before your petition.
- The IRS assessed the tax at least 240 days before your filing date.
Miss any one of those and the tax stays fully collectible, with the IRS free to continue levying bank accounts and intercepting refunds.4Internal Revenue Service. Publication 908, Bankruptcy Tax Guide Two categories of tax debt are never dischargeable regardless of age: trust-fund payroll taxes that employers are required to withhold from employee wages,5Internal Revenue Service. Declaring Bankruptcy and taxes tied to fraud or to returns the taxpayer never filed. Fraud penalties fall in the same bucket.
Student Loans
Federal and private student loans are presumed non-dischargeable. To get rid of them, you have to file a separate lawsuit inside your bankruptcy case, called an adversary proceeding, and prove that repayment would impose an undue hardship on you and your dependents.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 523 – Exceptions to Discharge Most courts apply a three-part test: whether you can maintain a minimal standard of living while repaying, whether your financial difficulties are likely to persist for a significant portion of the repayment period, and whether you have made good-faith efforts to repay.
Few borrowers used to try, because success rates were low. In 2024, the U.S. Department of Education issued updated guidance acknowledging that borrowers had been deterred by the historically low probability of success, and directed federal loan holders to take a more realistic approach to hardship claims in adversary proceedings.7Federal Student Aid Partners. Undue Hardship Discharge of Title IV Loans in Bankruptcy Adversary Proceedings Discharge is more accessible than it was, but it still requires filing and litigating that separate proceeding.
Government Fines, Restitution, and DUI Injury Debts
Fines and penalties owed to a government agency are not discharged, and neither is court-ordered restitution to crime victims.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 523 – Exceptions to Discharge The rule is meant to keep bankruptcy from being used to sidestep the financial consequences of a criminal conviction or regulatory violation.
Liability for death or personal injury caused by operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated is also permanently excluded from discharge, in both Chapter 7 and Chapter 13.2United States Courts. Discharge in Bankruptcy – Bankruptcy Basics A civil judgment from a drunk-driving crash follows you even after an otherwise successful case.
Debts Tied to Fraud, Luxury Spending, or Willful Harm
Bankruptcy is built for honest debtors in financial trouble. The law pushes back when the facts suggest the debt was never meant to be repaid, or when it stems from deliberate wrongdoing.
Two specific pre-filing patterns trigger a presumption of fraud:
- Charges of more than $900 to a single creditor for luxury goods or services made within 90 days of filing.
- Cash advances totaling more than $1,250 taken within 70 days of filing.
Both presumptions are rebuttable, but once they apply the burden shifts to you to show the spending was not fraudulent. Outside those specific thresholds, any debt obtained through false pretenses, a false representation, or actual fraud is non-dischargeable when the creditor files a timely challenge.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 523 – Exceptions to Discharge
Debts arising from intentional and malicious injury to another person or their property are also excluded from discharge in Chapter 7.2United States Courts. Discharge in Bankruptcy – Bankruptcy Basics A judgment for an assault, for example, follows the debtor out of the case.
Secured Debts: The Lien Survives
A secured debt has two parts: your personal promise to repay, and the lender’s lien on the collateral. A discharge can erase the first. It does not touch the second.
So if you receive a Chapter 7 discharge and later stop paying your mortgage, the lender cannot sue you personally for the balance. The lender can still foreclose on the house, because the lien is still attached to the property. The same is true of a car loan: no personal lawsuit, but the lender can still repossess the vehicle. Keeping the collateral means continuing to pay, one way or another.
Reaffirmation
If you want to keep a secured asset on its original loan, you can sign a reaffirmation agreement with the lender. The agreement waives the discharge for that one debt, so you remain personally liable going forward. It has to be filed with the court before the discharge is entered, and you have 60 days after filing it (or until the discharge date, whichever is later) to rescind.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 524 – Effect of Discharge If you were not represented by an attorney in the negotiation, the court has to approve the agreement as being in your best interest and not an undue hardship.
Redemption
Chapter 7 offers a second option for tangible personal property like a car used for personal or household purposes. Instead of reaffirming the full loan, you can redeem the item by paying the creditor its current market value in a single lump sum. Owe $12,000 on a car worth $7,000, and redemption lets you keep the car for $7,000.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 722 – Redemption The payment has to be made all at once, which is the practical obstacle. Redemption does not apply to real estate.
Chapter 13 Reaches a Few Debts Chapter 7 Does Not
Most non-dischargeable categories look the same across chapters. A short list of debts can be eliminated at the end of a completed Chapter 13 plan but not in Chapter 7:
- Debts for willful and malicious injury to property, as opposed to injury to a person.
- Financial obligations from a property division in a divorce or separation agreement. Domestic support obligations like child support and alimony still cannot be discharged.
- Debts you took on to pay a tax that would itself have been non-dischargeable, such as a credit-card balance used to pay the IRS.
These extra discharges apply only if you finish the full three-to-five-year repayment plan.10United States Courts. Chapter 13 – Bankruptcy Basics Dropping out partway through means losing them.
Debts You Forgot to List
In a Chapter 7 no-asset case, where the trustee is not distributing funds to creditors, debts you accidentally left off your schedules are generally still discharged. In an asset case, where creditors are being paid something, debts you failed to list may survive because the creditor never got the chance to file a claim. The practical takeaway is to list everything, including debts you think are too old or too small to matter.
Debts Barred by a Prior Filing
Even an otherwise dischargeable debt stays on your back if you file too soon after a previous case. Federal law sets mandatory waiting periods between discharges:
- Chapter 7 after Chapter 7: eight years from the filing date of the earlier case.
- Chapter 7 after Chapter 13: six years, unless you paid 100% of unsecured claims in the earlier case or at least 70% under a good-faith best-effort plan.
- Chapter 13 after Chapter 7: four years from the filing date of the prior Chapter 7.
- Chapter 13 after Chapter 13: two years from the filing date of the prior Chapter 13.
File before the clock runs out and the court will deny the discharge, even if the case itself proceeds.2United States Courts. Discharge in Bankruptcy – Bankruptcy Basics The debts you were hoping to eliminate come out the other side intact.
Putting It Together
The short version is that bankruptcy is powerful but partial. Credit cards, medical bills, personal loans, utility arrears, car-loan deficiencies after a repossession, and old money judgments based on dischargeable debt all generally go away. Support obligations, most taxes, most student loans, government fines, restitution, DUI-injury judgments, and debts rooted in fraud or willful harm all stay. Secured liens stay attached to the property no matter what happens to your personal liability. Before filing, it is worth running your own list of debts against those categories so you know, going in, which balances the case will clear and which will still be waiting on the other side.