How to Fill Out Bankruptcy Form 107: Statement of Financial Affairs

To fill out Bankruptcy Form 107, the Statement of Financial Affairs for Individuals Filing for Bankruptcy, download the current April 2025 version from uscourts.gov, gather financial records covering look-back periods that range from 90 days to 10 years, answer every numbered question in each of the form’s parts (checking the “None” box when a question doesn’t apply), redact personal identifiers as required by Rule 9037, and file it with your bankruptcy petition or within 14 days after.¹² You must use the Official Form; Bankruptcy Rule 9009 doesn’t allow substitutes or older versions. Attorneys and bankruptcy software generate the same form with the same questions.

Gather Your Records First

Form 107’s questions reach back different lengths of time depending on the topic. Some go back one year, some two, and one looks back a full decade. Pulling the records together before you start answering saves you from discovering gaps halfway through.

Income

Questions 4 and 5 ask about income for the current calendar year and the two previous calendar years. Collect tax returns, W-2s, 1099s, pay stubs, and records of any other income: alimony, Social Security, rental income, pensions, interest, dividends.³ Report gross figures, not net.

Payments to Creditors

You’ll need bank statements, canceled checks, and payment confirmations for the 90 days before your filing date. The dollar threshold for reporting a creditor depends on the type of debt. If your debts are primarily consumer (personal, family, or household), you must report any creditor you paid a total of $600 or more. If your debts are primarily non-consumer, the threshold is $8,575 or more.³ The $8,575 figure is subject to periodic adjustment, with the next adjustment date on April 1, 2028.

For payments to insiders, the window stretches to one full year regardless of amount. “Insider” means relatives, business partners, and entities they control.

Property Transfers and Legal Actions

Pull any court filings, lawsuit documents, garnishment orders, foreclosure notices, or repossession records from the past year. For property you sold, traded, gave away, or otherwise transferred within the past two years, gather deeds, titles, and bills of sale. Question 19 reaches back 10 years and asks specifically about transfers to self-settled trusts or similar arrangements, so if that applies, go find those records too.³

Accounts and Storage

Collect statements and closing documents for any bank, brokerage, or CD accounts you closed, sold, or transferred within the past year. If you rented a safe deposit box or storage unit in that same period, bring those records.

Working Through the Form Part by Part

The form is organized into parts, each containing numbered questions. One rule applies across all of them: if a question doesn’t apply, check the “None” box. Don’t leave anything blank. A blank answer looks like a skipped question, and the trustee will ask about it.

Part 1: Marital Status and Residences (Questions 1–3)

State your current marital status and list every address where you’ve lived in the past three years. If you lived with a spouse or domestic partner in a community property state within the last eight years, disclose that too. The community property states are Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin.

Part 2: Income (Questions 4–5)

Report gross income from employment or business operations for the current calendar year and the two full years before that. Question 5 covers everything else: alimony, child support, Social Security, pensions, interest, dividends, rental income, and any income not captured by Question 4.³

Part 3: Payments Before Filing (Questions 6–8)

This is where most filers spend the most time, and where mistakes cause the most trouble. Question 6 wants every creditor you paid $600 or more (consumer debts) or $8,575 or more (non-consumer debts) during the 90 days before filing. Questions 7 and 8 cover insider payments and transfers within the past year. Trustees look at these answers carefully, because paying off a relative’s loan right before filing is a classic preferential transfer.

Part 4: Legal Actions and Repossessions (Questions 9–12)

List any lawsuit, court action, or administrative proceeding you were involved in during the past year, with case numbers and courts. Report any property repossessed, foreclosed, garnished, or seized during the same period. Question 11 covers setoffs: situations where a creditor holding your money (like a bank) applied your deposit to a debt you owed within the 90 days before filing.

Part 5: Gifts and Charitable Contributions (Questions 13–14)

Report any gift worth more than $600 per recipient that you made in the two years before filing, to a person or a charity.³ Birthday and holiday presents of modest value usually don’t trigger this; anything above $600 total to a single person or organization does.

Part 6: Losses (Question 15)

Disclose losses from theft, fire, other disasters, or gambling within one year before filing or since filing. This question helps the trustee understand where assets went if your current holdings seem low relative to your income.

Part 7: Payments and Transfers (Questions 16–19)

Questions 16 and 17 cover payments to attorneys, bankruptcy petition preparers, debt counselors, or anyone who helped you deal with creditors in the year before filing. Question 18 covers property sold, traded, or transferred outside the ordinary course of business within the past two years. Question 19 is the one that looks back 10 years, asking about transfers into self-settled trusts or similar arrangements.

Part 8: Financial Accounts and Storage (Questions 20–22)

Report any financial accounts closed, moved, or transferred within one year before filing. List safe deposit boxes and storage units held during the same period, with the names and addresses of the institutions.

Remaining Questions (23–28)

The final questions cover environmental cleanup obligations, business ownership, tax returns and refunds, and any business you operated or had a financial interest in. If you were an officer, director, partner, or managing executive of a corporation or partnership within the last six years, you must disclose it. There are also questions about health care and educational matters tied to business operations.

The Signature Page

The last page is a declaration you sign under penalty of perjury, certifying that everything in the form is true and correct to the best of your knowledge. This carries the force of a sworn statement under 28 U.S.C. § 1746.⁴ If you’re filing jointly with a spouse, both of you sign.

Redact Personal Identifiers Before You File

Federal Rule of Bankruptcy Procedure 9037 requires you to redact certain personal identifiers before filing any document, including Form 107.⁵ Bankruptcy filings are public records, so this matters. The rule covers five categories:

Social Security numbers: last four digits only.
Taxpayer identification numbers: last four digits only.
Birth dates: year only.
Names of non-debtor minors: initials only.
Financial account numbers: last four digits only.

You handle the redaction yourself. The clerk’s office doesn’t do it for you, and once a filing hits the public docket with a full account number or Social Security number exposed, fixing it is slow and complicated.

Filing and the 14-Day Deadline

Under Federal Rule of Bankruptcy Procedure 1007(c), Form 107 is due with your bankruptcy petition or within 14 days after.² Missing this deadline can get your case dismissed. If you need more time, file a motion for extension before the deadline passes, explaining why and specifying the new deadline you’re requesting. If the court grants it and you still miss the new date, the case can be dismissed with a 180-day bar on refiling.

Attorneys file electronically through the court’s Case Management/Electronic Case Files (CM/ECF) system. Some bankruptcy courts allow self-represented filers to use CM/ECF, but this varies by district.⁶ If your court doesn’t offer electronic filing to pro se debtors, you file paper copies at the bankruptcy clerk’s office. There’s no separate filing fee for Form 107; it’s part of the package submitted with or shortly after the petition.

Fixing Mistakes After You File

If you spot a mistake or omission after submitting, file an amended Form 107. Use the same form, check the box indicating it’s an amendment, and submit it to the court. Local rules vary on whether a cover sheet is required and how to serve copies on the trustee and affected creditors, so check with your court’s clerk.

Most courts charge a $34 fee for amendments to schedules of creditors or mailing lists.⁷ Whether that fee applies to an amended Statement of Financial Affairs specifically depends on local practice; ask the clerk’s office before filing. A bankruptcy judge can waive the fee for good cause. Amend sooner rather than later. If the trustee finds the error first, the assumption shifts from honest mistake to intentional omission.

What False or Incomplete Answers Can Cost You

Because you sign Form 107 under penalty of perjury, intentional falsehoods are a federal crime under 18 U.S.C. § 152, which covers concealment of assets and false oaths in bankruptcy proceedings. The maximum sentence is five years in federal prison, a fine, or both.⁸

Even without prosecution, dishonesty can cost you the entire benefit of filing. Under 11 U.S.C. § 727, the court must deny your discharge if you made a false oath, concealed property with intent to defraud creditors, or failed to adequately explain a loss of assets.⁹ A denied discharge means going through the entire bankruptcy process and still owing every dollar. The trustee, the U.S. Trustee’s office, or any creditor can object on these grounds.

Accidental errors are different. If you genuinely forgot about a closed account or miscalculated a payment total, filing an amendment promptly and explaining the oversight at the 341 meeting usually resolves it. The line between an innocent mistake and sanctionable conduct comes down to intent, and the burden of showing which one it was falls on you. That’s the reason to get the form right the first time.

1
United States Courts. Statement of Financial Affairs for Individuals Filing for Bankruptcy
2
Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure Rule 1007 – Lists, Schedules, Statements, and Other Documents; Time to File
3
United States Courts. Official Form 107 Statement of Financial Affairs for Individuals Filing for Bankruptcy
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 US Code 1746 – Unsworn Declarations Under Penalty of Perjury
5
Legal Information Institute. Rule 9037 Protecting Privacy for Filings
6
United States Courts. Electronic Filing (CM/ECF)
7
United States Courts. Bankruptcy Court Miscellaneous Fee Schedule
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 US Code 152 – Concealment of Assets; False Oaths and Claims
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 727 – Discharge