Washington State Bankruptcy Exemptions: Homestead, Vehicle, Wildcard

If you file bankruptcy in Washington, the Washington state bankruptcy exemptions let you keep your primary home up to a substantial equity cap, one vehicle worth up to $15,000 in equity, everyday household goods, tools you use for work, retirement accounts, most of your wages, and up to $10,000 of anything else through a wildcard. You can use this state list or the federal exemption list in 11 U.S.C. § 522(d), but not a mix of the two.¹

State List or Federal List

Washington is one of the states that gives filers a choice. You commit to one set for the entire case, and joint spouses must both use the same set.¹

The state list is usually the stronger choice if you own a home with real equity. Washington’s homestead protection runs into six figures; the federal homestead is capped at $31,575 per debtor as of April 1, 2025.² Washington also gives you $15,000 for a vehicle against the federal $5,025, and $15,000 for tools of the trade against $3,175.

The federal list wins in one place: the wildcard. Federal filers get $1,675 in general wildcard protection plus up to $15,800 of any unused homestead amount, which can push a single filer’s wildcard past $17,000.² A renter with no home equity, a modest car, and some cash in the bank often protects more under the federal set than under Washington’s $10,000 bankruptcy wildcard. Run the numbers both ways.

Homestead

Washington’s homestead exemption protects equity in your primary residence. The protected amount is the greater of $125,000 or the county median sale price of a single-family home for the preceding calendar year, as published by the Washington Center for Real Estate Research. In King County and much of the Puget Sound region, the median-price formula pushes the exemption well above the $125,000 floor.

The exemption applies to any property you actually use as your principal home, including a house, condominium, or mobile home, whether or not the mobile home is permanently attached to the land.³ Equity means market value minus senior liens like your mortgage. If the trustee cannot sell the home for more than your mortgage balance plus your exemption, the home stays yours.

Your Vehicle

You can exempt up to $15,000 in equity in one motor vehicle used for personal transportation.⁴ Equity is market value minus what you still owe. A car worth $20,000 with a $12,000 loan balance carries $8,000 in equity, which fits well within the cap.

Joint spouses each claim the exemption. They can stack both shares on one vehicle to protect up to $30,000 in equity, or apply $15,000 to each of two vehicles.⁴

Household Goods and Personal Property

Washington protects a broad range of everyday belongings under RCW 6.15.010:⁴

Household goods, furniture, and appliances up to $6,500 total for an individual, including provisions and fuel for the household.
All wearing apparel, though furs, jewelry, and personal ornaments are capped at $3,500 per person.
Private libraries, including digital and electronic media, up to $3,500, plus family pictures and keepsakes with no dollar cap.
One cell phone, one personal computer, and a printer, each fully exempt with no dollar cap.

A married couple or registered domestic partners can double every one of these figures. That takes household goods to $13,000 and jewelry to $7,000 for the couple.⁴

Tools of the Trade

You can protect up to $15,000 in tools, instruments, materials, and supplies used in your trade, business, or profession.⁴ This sits alongside the vehicle exemption rather than competing with it. A self-employed carpenter can protect a $15,000 work truck under the vehicle exemption and another $15,000 in power tools under the trade exemption.

The Wildcard

In a bankruptcy case, Washington lets you exempt up to $10,000 in any personal property of your choosing that is not covered by a specific exemption.⁴ That includes cash, bank balances, tax refunds already owed to you, and anything else that does not fit the household goods, vehicle, or tools categories. A joint filing doubles the wildcard to $20,000.

The bankruptcy-specific $10,000 figure has no sublimits on cash or securities, which is different from Washington’s smaller wildcard outside of bankruptcy. Knowing that difference matters if a lawyer or online guide quotes the non-bankruptcy number.

Retirement Accounts and Life Insurance

Retirement savings receive broad protection. The right to benefits under a pension, annuity, or employer-sponsored retirement plan is generally exempt from creditors, covering 401(k), 403(b), and similar accounts. Traditional and Roth IRAs are protected under 11 U.S.C. § 522(b)(3)(C) with a combined cap that is adjusted periodically and currently exceeds $1.5 million for most filers.

Life insurance proceeds payable to someone other than the insured are exempt from the claims of both the insured’s creditors and the beneficiary’s existing creditors.⁵ If your spouse is the named beneficiary of your policy, those proceeds are shielded.

Wages and Public Benefits

Washington’s wage protection is more generous than the federal baseline. For most debts, the exempt amount each week is the greater of 35 times the federal minimum hourly wage or 75% of your disposable earnings, so a creditor can take at most 25%.⁶ The rules shift by debt type:

Consumer debt: the exempt amount is the greater of 35 times the state minimum hourly wage or 80% of disposable earnings.⁶
Private student loans: the greater of 50 times the highest state minimum wage or 85% of disposable earnings.⁶
Spousal maintenance: 50% of disposable earnings is exempt.⁶

Public assistance is fully exempt. Social Security, unemployment compensation, veterans’ benefits, and welfare payments keep their protected status even after being deposited into a bank account, as long as the funds remain traceable and are not mixed with other money to the point they cannot be identified. An Earned Income Tax Credit you are already entitled to receive before filing can often be protected using the wildcard, but a credit earned after filing is not covered.

How Values Are Measured

Every dollar limit in Washington’s personal property exemptions is measured by the market value of your ownership interest, minus any loans or liens, as of the date you file the petition.⁴ The trustee looks at resale value, not what you paid. A couch that cost $2,000 three years ago is probably a $300 item now. Most filers find their personal property totals sit comfortably under the caps once they use realistic used-market prices.

Married couples and registered domestic partners who file jointly can double every exemption, either by stacking both shares on one item or by spreading them across separate property.⁴

The Residency Rule

Before relying on Washington’s exemptions, check how long you have lived here. To use the state list, you generally need at least 730 days of Washington residency before the filing date.⁷ If you moved more recently, the Bankruptcy Code looks at where you lived for the 180 days before that two-year window, and you may be required to use that prior state’s exemptions. If no state’s rules will take you, the federal exemptions are always available as a fallback. Sorting out which set applies is one of the first questions to answer before filing if you have moved in the past two years.

1
United States Bankruptcy Court. Exemptions (Property You Can Keep)
2
Federal Register. Adjustment of Certain Dollar Amounts Applicable to Bankruptcy Cases
3
Washington State Legislature. Washington Code 6.13.010 – Homestead, What Constitutes
4
Washington State Legislature. Washington Code 6.15.010 – Exempt Property
5
Washington State Legislature. Washington Code 48.18.410 – Exemption of Proceeds, Life
6
Washington State Legislature. Washington Code 6.27.150 – Exemption of Earnings, Amount
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 522 – Exemptions