Bankruptcy schedules are the sworn financial forms that give the court a full snapshot of what you own, what you owe, and what you earn and spend on the day you file. There are seven of them for individual filers — Schedule A/B, C, D, E/F, H, I, and J — and Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 filers complete the same set. Each entry is signed under penalty of perjury. Concealing assets or lying on the forms is a federal crime carrying up to five years in prison and fines up to $250,000.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 152 – Concealment of Assets; False Oaths and Claims; Bribery2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 3571 – Sentence of Fine What follows walks through each schedule, what belongs on it, and the traps that most often cost filers property or a discharge.
Schedule A/B: Everything You Own
Official Form 106A/B is the property inventory, and it’s the longest schedule for most people. The real estate section covers your home, rental properties, vacant land, and timeshare interests.3United States Courts. Official Form 106AB – Schedule AB: Property Each property needs a street address, a legal description from the deed or tax assessment, and a current market value based on a recent appraisal or comparable sales.
The personal property section is where omissions happen. You must list vehicles (registered or not), furniture, electronics, jewelry, clothing, and household goods. Financial assets get their own entries: checking and savings balances, stocks, bonds, retirement accounts including 401(k) plans and IRAs, and life insurance policies with cash value. Less obvious items count too. A pending lawsuit, an expected tax refund, or money someone owes you are all property the trustee wants to see.3United States Courts. Official Form 106AB – Schedule AB: Property
Value each item at what it would sell for today in its current condition, not what you paid. A couch you bought for $2,000 three years ago might be worth $200 at a garage sale, and $200 is what goes on the form. Overlooking an asset, even by accident, gives the trustee grounds to claim it, and anything valued suspiciously low will come up at the meeting of creditors.
Schedule C: The Property You Claim as Exempt
Schedule C (Official Form 106C) is where you invoke the legal protections that let you keep property through bankruptcy. The first choice on the form is whether to use the federal exemption system or your state’s.4United States Courts. Official Form 106C – Schedule C: The Property You Claim as Exempt Not every state offers the choice. A majority have opted out of the federal system, meaning residents there must use state exemptions.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 522 – Exemptions Where both are available, compare them carefully, because one system almost always beats the other depending on what you own.
For each asset from Schedule A/B, you identify the specific statute that protects it and the dollar amount you’re claiming. The federal figures, adjusted most recently in April 2025, include up to $31,575 for a primary residence, $5,025 for a motor vehicle, and $2,125 for jewelry.6Federal Register. Adjustment of Certain Dollar Amounts Applicable to Bankruptcy Cases The federal wildcard exemption protects $1,675 in any property plus up to $15,800 of unused homestead exemption, and it’s often the most strategically valuable line on the form because it can cover assets that don’t fit another category.
Citing the wrong statute or claiming more than a law allows leaves valuable property exposed. If your car is worth $7,000 and the vehicle exemption only covers $5,025, the remaining $1,975 in equity goes to the trustee unless you apply the wildcard to close the gap. For most filers, this is the most consequential math in the entire filing.
Schedule D: Creditors With Secured Claims
Official Form 106D lists every creditor whose debt is backed by collateral — a mortgage lender, an auto loan company, a furniture store that financed a purchase.7United States Courts. Official Form 106D – Creditors Who Have Claims Secured by Property Each entry needs the creditor’s name, mailing address, account number, the date the debt started, the current balance, and the current market value of the collateral. The relationship between balance and collateral matters. If you owe $15,000 on a car worth $10,000, only $10,000 is secured and the remaining $5,000 is treated as unsecured.
Chapter 7 filers have an extra duty tied to this schedule. Within 30 days of filing, or before the meeting of creditors if that comes first, you must file a Statement of Intention on Official Form 108 declaring what you plan to do with each secured item.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 521 – Debtor’s Duties Your options are to surrender the property, redeem it by paying its current value in a lump sum, or reaffirm the debt and keep making payments.9United States Courts. Official Form 108 – Statement of Intention for Individuals Filing Under Chapter 7 Miss the deadline and the automatic stay can be lifted on that property, clearing the way for repossession.
Schedule E/F: Creditors With Unsecured Claims
Official Form 106E/F covers every debt not backed by collateral, split into two parts. Part 1 is priority unsecured claims, which federal law requires to be paid ahead of other creditors. The most common are certain income tax obligations and past-due child support or alimony.10United States Courts. Instructions for Bankruptcy Forms for Individuals These debts survive bankruptcy in most situations, so how you list them affects what you still owe when your case closes.
Part 2 is nonpriority unsecured claims: credit card balances, medical bills, personal loans, and similar debts.10United States Courts. Instructions for Bankruptcy Forms for Individuals Each entry needs the creditor’s name, mailing address, full account number, and total balance as of the filing date. Pull your credit report before starting this section. Collection agencies buy and rename debts constantly, and a balance you thought was with one company may now sit with a different collector. If a creditor isn’t on your schedules, that debt may not be discharged.
Schedule H: Your Codebtors
Schedule H (Official Form 106H) identifies anyone who shares responsibility for your debts. That includes a cosigner on a car loan, a former spouse on a joint credit card, or a relative who guaranteed a personal loan.11United States Courts. Official Form 106H – Schedule H: Your Codebtors Each entry has to tie back to a specific debt already on Schedule D or E/F, along with the codebtor’s full name and mailing address.
The consequences depend on which chapter you file. In Chapter 7, your discharge wipes out your personal obligation, but creditors can immediately turn to your codebtor for the full remaining balance. Chapter 13 provides a codebtor stay that blocks creditors from pursuing codebtors on consumer debts while your repayment plan is active.12Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 1301 – Stay of Action Against Codebtor That protection covers only debts incurred for personal, family, or household purposes, and it ends if your case is dismissed or converted to Chapter 7. If your plan doesn’t propose to pay the codebtor’s claim, the creditor can ask the court to lift the stay.
Schedules I and J: Monthly Income and Expenses
Schedule I (Official Form 106I) captures household income from every source. That means gross wages, overtime, bonuses, commissions, Social Security benefits, disability payments, pension income, rental income, and contributions from anyone living with you. You list your current employer’s name and address and attach recent pay stubs. If your spouse lives with you, their income goes on this form even if they aren’t filing.
Schedule J (Official Form 106J) is your monthly expense budget: rent or mortgage, utilities, food, clothing, transportation, insurance, medical costs, childcare, and other regular spending. If you and a co-filing spouse maintain separate households, the second spouse fills out Form 106J-2 to report those separate expenses.13United States Courts. Form 106J-2: Expenses for Separate Household of Debtor 2 The bottom line is your net monthly income after expenses, and that number drives major decisions in your case.
In Chapter 13, the net monthly income figure essentially becomes your proposed plan payment. If it’s inflated because you underreported expenses, you’ll struggle to keep up. If it’s deflated because you padded expenses with luxuries, the trustee will object. In Chapter 7, the court compares your reported figures against local standards for your household size to gauge whether you’re filing in good faith.
Filing Deadlines and Amending Your Schedules
You can file your schedules alongside the initial petition, or take up to 14 days after filing the petition to submit them.14Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure Rule 1007 – Lists, Schedules, Statements, and Other Documents; Time to File Courts can extend that for good cause. Don’t push it. If all required information isn’t filed within 45 days of the petition date, your case is automatically dismissed on day 46.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 521 – Debtor’s Duties You can request one extension of up to 45 additional days if you file the request before the original deadline expires, but the court must find justification.
Mistakes are fixable. Federal Rule of Bankruptcy Procedure 1009 lets you amend any schedule at any time before your case closes, as long as you notify the trustee and any affected parties.15Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure Rule 1009 – Amending a Voluntary Petition, List, Schedule, or Statement Adding a creditor you forgot to list costs a $34 court fee, though judges can waive it for good cause. No fee applies to simply correcting a creditor’s address or adding an attorney’s name to an existing entry.16United States Courts. Bankruptcy Court Miscellaneous Fee Schedule Amend sooner rather than later. Adding a creditor months into a case raises questions about whether the omission was intentional.
Every schedule ends with a declaration signed under penalty of perjury. The trustee reviews the forms line by line at the meeting of creditors, and thorough, accurate schedules are what make that meeting short.