To qualify for bankruptcy, you need to complete a pre-filing credit counseling course, clear any waiting period from a prior discharge, and meet the eligibility rules for the chapter you want to file: Chapter 7 requires passing a means test tied to your state’s median income, while Chapter 13 requires a steady income and debts under the statutory caps. The rest of qualifying is paperwork and honesty about your finances. Everyone’s situation lands somewhere on that framework, and the court will dismiss a case that skips any of the required pieces.
Finish Credit Counseling First
Before you can file a petition at all, you have to complete a credit counseling session with a nonprofit agency approved by the U.S. Trustee Program.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 109 – Who May Be a Debtor It can be done by phone, online, or in person, and it walks through your income, expenses, debts, and the alternatives to bankruptcy. The session has to happen within 180 days before the day you file. File too early and the certificate expires; skip it and the court dismisses your case.
The agency issues a certificate of completion that gets filed with your petition. Fees usually run from $10 to $50, and a waiver is available if your household income is below 150 percent of the federal poverty guidelines.
Check Whether a Prior Bankruptcy Blocks You
A past discharge can lock you out for years. If you received a Chapter 7 discharge, you cannot receive another Chapter 7 discharge in a case filed within eight years of the earlier filing date.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 US Code 727 – Discharge If you received a Chapter 13 discharge, you generally cannot receive a Chapter 7 discharge in a case filed within six years, unless you paid back all unsecured creditors in full or paid at least 70 percent under a plan proposed in good faith.
Courts check this early. Filing before the clock runs out doesn’t just slow the case down; it ends in denial of the discharge itself, even if you qualify on every other front. If you’re near a cutoff, waiting a few weeks can be the difference between a wasted filing and a clean one.
Qualifying for Chapter 7: The Means Test
Chapter 7 erases most unsecured debt without a repayment plan, so the court uses the means test to confirm you genuinely can’t afford to pay creditors. The test runs in two steps, and failing it usually redirects you toward Chapter 13 rather than ending your options.
Step One: Compare Your Income to the State Median
The first step takes your average monthly income over the six months before filing (not counting the filing month) and compares it to the median income for a household of your size in your state. Below the median, you pass automatically and can proceed with Chapter 7. The U.S. Trustee Program publishes updated median income figures periodically; for a single earner, state medians currently range from roughly $53,000 to $86,000 depending on where you live, with higher figures for larger households.3U.S. Department of Justice. Median Family Income Table for Cases Filed on or After November 1, 2025
Step Two: Calculate Disposable Income
If your income tops the state median, you move to Official Form 122A-2. The form subtracts a set of IRS-approved expense allowances from your income. The IRS publishes national standards for food, clothing, personal care, and miscellaneous expenses based on household size; a single-person household gets roughly $839 per month in standardized expense deductions, and a four-person household gets about $2,129.4Internal Revenue Service. Collection Financial Standards You can also deduct actual costs for health insurance, childcare, taxes, and secured debt payments.
Multiply what’s left (your monthly disposable income) by 60. If that 60-month total is $10,275 or less, no presumption of abuse arises and you can file Chapter 7. If it reaches $17,150 or more, the presumption kicks in and you’re generally blocked. In between, the presumption applies only if your disposable income equals or exceeds 25 percent of your nonpriority unsecured debt.
If You’re Married and Filing Alone
Your non-filing spouse’s income gets pulled into the means test calculation even in a solo filing. You can claim a marital adjustment deduction for the portion of their income that goes to their own separate expenses, such as their own car payment, student loans, or retirement contributions. Only the share that actually supports your household counts against you.
Arguing Special Circumstances
Failing the means test isn’t always final. You can argue “special circumstances” to justify additional expenses the standard deductions don’t capture, such as a serious medical condition or an involuntary job loss. The burden sits with you, and trustees look at these claims hard. Borderline cases usually fall apart on documentation: vague assertions without medical records, layoff letters, or similar proof rarely succeed.
Qualifying for Chapter 13: Steady Income and Debt Limits
Chapter 13 doesn’t liquidate your assets. You propose a court-supervised repayment plan funded by your regular income, and the qualification rules reflect that structure.
Regular Income
You need a steady source of income large enough to sustain monthly plan payments. It doesn’t have to be a traditional salary. Social Security, pension income, rental income, and self-employment earnings all count. What the court wants to see is reliability for the length of the plan.5United States Courts. Chapter 13 – Bankruptcy Basics
Debt Caps
Chapter 13 limits how much debt you can carry. Between June 2022 and June 2024, a temporary law allowed a combined debt ceiling of $2,750,000. That provision expired, and the limits reverted to a two-part test: your noncontingent, liquidated unsecured debts and your noncontingent, liquidated secured debts must each fall below separate thresholds set by federal law.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 109 – Who May Be a Debtor These dollar limits adjust every three years for inflation, so check the most recent figures from the U.S. Trustee Program before filing. If your debts exceed the caps, Chapter 11 (which has no debt ceiling for individuals) can be an alternative, though it’s more expensive and complex.
Plan Length and Who Can File
How long you’ll pay depends on your income relative to your state’s median. Below-median filers commit to a three-year plan. Above-median filers commit to five years, which is also the maximum.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 US Code 1325 – Confirmation of Plan Your monthly payment is based on disposable income left after allowed expenses, calculated on Form 122C-2, which mirrors the Chapter 7 means test. Only individuals and sole proprietors can use Chapter 13; corporations and partnerships are excluded.
What Property You Get to Keep
Qualifying to file is one question. What survives the filing is another, and for Chapter 7 it often decides whether filing is worth doing. In Chapter 7, a trustee can sell your non-exempt assets to pay creditors, so your exemptions set the floor on what you keep. In Chapter 13, exemptions matter less day to day because you keep your property and pay through the plan, but they still shape how much you must repay unsecured creditors.
Every state sets its own exemption amounts for home equity, vehicle equity, household goods, retirement accounts, and tools of your trade. Some states also let you choose between state exemptions and a set of federal bankruptcy exemptions. Homestead protection runs from nothing in a few states to unlimited in others, though even “unlimited” states impose acreage restrictions. Federal bankruptcy law also caps the homestead exemption for property acquired within about three and a half years before filing. Retirement accounts in qualified plans (401(k)s, IRAs) generally receive strong protection regardless of state.
Getting exemptions wrong is one of the most common and costly filing mistakes. Claim too little and you lose property you could have protected. Claim exemptions that don’t apply in your state and the trustee will object, which can unravel the case. State-specific legal advice before filing often pays for itself here.
Debts That Don’t Go Away Even If You Qualify
Qualifying to file doesn’t mean every debt disappears. Federal law carves out categories of debt that survive a discharge, and if the bulk of what you owe falls into those categories, bankruptcy may cost you time and money without meaningful relief.
The major nondischargeable categories include:7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 US Code 523 – Exceptions to Discharge
- Child support and alimony, which survive both Chapter 7 and Chapter 13.
- Most federal and private student loans, unless you can prove “undue hardship.” The Department of Education’s 2022 guidance has made that process somewhat more accessible, but the standard remains hard to meet.
- Recent income tax debts. Income taxes generally need to be at least three years old, with timely filed returns, to qualify for discharge. Payroll taxes you withheld from employees are never dischargeable.8Internal Revenue Service. Bankruptcy Frequently Asked Questions
- Debts obtained through fraud, misrepresentation, false financial statements, or embezzlement.
- Debts for death or personal injury caused by driving under the influence.
- Court-ordered criminal restitution.
- Debts you leave off your schedules, unless the creditor had actual notice of your case in time to file a claim.
Working through which of your debts actually qualify for discharge is the single most useful piece of pre-filing analysis. The answer tells you whether qualifying is worth the effort in the first place.