What Can You Put in Bankruptcy? Secured, Tax, and Student Debts

You can put every debt you have into a bankruptcy case — in fact, the law requires it. The real question is which of those debts the court will actually discharge. Most unsecured consumer debts, such as credit card balances and medical bills, get wiped out. Secured loans like mortgages and car loans stay tied to the property. And a specific set of obligations, including child support, most student loans, and recent tax debts, survive the case even though you listed them.

Your bankruptcy schedules are signed under penalty of perjury, and leaving a creditor off can mean that debt escapes your discharge entirely. Unsecured debts go on Schedule E/F; debts backed by property go on Schedule D along with the value of the collateral.¹² Even debts you plan to keep paying, like your car loan, must be disclosed.

Unsecured Consumer Debts

Unsecured debts are the debts most people file bankruptcy to eliminate, and they are the ones bankruptcy handles most cleanly. In Chapter 7, they are discharged when the case ends. In Chapter 13, you pay a portion through a three-to-five-year plan, and the balance is discharged at the end.³

Debts you can typically discharge in this category include:

Credit card balances, regardless of the amount owed.
Medical and hospital bills.
Personal loans and payday loans, whatever the interest rate.
Past-due utility bills for electricity, water, and gas.
Old gym memberships, cell phone contracts, and similar service agreements.

Once these debts are discharged, the creditor is permanently barred from trying to collect. Contacting you, sending bills, or filing suit on a discharged debt can expose the creditor to contempt sanctions from the bankruptcy court.⁴

Secured Debts: Mortgages, Car Loans, and Other Collateralized Debt

Debts secured by property work differently because the creditor has a lien on something you own. Filing does not automatically erase the lien. Within 30 days of filing Chapter 7, you have to file a Statement of Intention telling the court what you plan to do with each secured asset.⁵ You have three options:

Reaffirm the debt by signing a new agreement that keeps the loan alive. You keep the property and stay personally liable. You can rescind a reaffirmation within 60 days of filing it with the court, and if you weren’t represented by an attorney, the court must approve the agreement.⁴
Surrender the property to the creditor. If a sale doesn’t cover what you owed, the shortfall becomes an unsecured claim and gets discharged with your other unsecured debts.
Redeem the property by paying the creditor its current market value in one lump sum, which can be less than the loan balance.

Modifying Secured Loans in Chapter 13

Chapter 13 offers more flexibility. Your plan can modify the terms of most secured loans, including reducing a car loan to the vehicle’s current market value — a technique known as a cramdown — and stretching payments over the plan’s length.⁶ You cannot modify a mortgage secured only by your primary residence, though you can cure missed payments through the plan and stop foreclosure.

Two restrictions to know. If you bought a vehicle within 910 days (roughly two and a half years) before filing, you cannot cram down that loan; you have to pay the full balance through the plan. Vehicles owned longer than that, and loans not used to buy the vehicle (like a title loan), are not subject to this rule.

Tax Debts

Income taxes can be discharged, but only when three timing tests are all met:⁷⁸

The return was originally due at least three years before you file, counting any extensions.
You actually filed the return at least two years before your bankruptcy. If you filed late, the clock runs from your filing date, not the original due date.
The tax was assessed by the government at least 240 days before you file.

If any one of these windows hasn’t closed, the tax survives your bankruptcy. Taxes tied to a fraudulent return or a willful attempt to evade payment are never dischargeable.⁷

Trust fund taxes are a separate category and cannot be discharged. If you ran a business and failed to remit payroll taxes withheld from employees’ checks, the IRS can pursue you personally through the Trust Fund Recovery Penalty, and bankruptcy will not touch that liability.⁹ Sales taxes you collected but didn’t turn over to the state work the same way.

Student Loans

Federal and private student loans must be listed, but they are presumed non-dischargeable. To eliminate one, you have to file a separate lawsuit within your bankruptcy case — an adversary proceeding — and prove that repayment would cause undue hardship.⁷

Most courts apply the Brunner test, which requires all three of the following:

You cannot maintain a minimal standard of living for yourself and your dependents if forced to pay.
Your financial situation is likely to persist for a significant part of the repayment period.
You have made good-faith efforts to repay in the past.

Some courts use a broader totality-of-the-circumstances approach that weighs your overall financial picture without demanding all three prongs.

In November 2022, the Department of Justice and the Department of Education issued guidance that changed how federal student loan discharge cases are handled. DOJ attorneys now evaluate cases using the same three factors — present inability, likelihood it persists, and good-faith repayment efforts — and a new attestation form lets borrowers present their situation without a full trial. If the attestation supports discharge, the government can agree to it.¹⁰ The guidance applies only to federal loans where the DOJ represents the lender.

Court Judgments and Pending Lawsuits

Any judgment against you or active lawsuit must be included. Filing triggers the automatic stay, which pauses litigation and stops enforcement while your case is open.¹¹

Whether the judgment is discharged depends on what it was for. Judgments for breach of contract, unpaid bills, and ordinary negligence are unsecured claims and get wiped out with your other unsecured debts.³ Two categories of judgment survive:

Fraud, embezzlement, or theft judgments — anything based on dishonesty or taking someone else’s property.⁷
Judgments for willful and malicious injury to a person or property.⁷

Even these debts can be discharged by default if the creditor doesn’t file a timely objection asking the bankruptcy court to declare them non-dischargeable.³

Recent Luxury Charges and Cash Advances

Charges made just before filing get flagged. For cases filed in 2026, two presumptions apply:⁷

Charges to a single creditor totaling more than $900 for luxury goods or services within 90 days before filing are presumed non-dischargeable. Luxury goods are things not reasonably necessary for you or your dependents — for example, vacations, jewelry, and sporting equipment.
Cash advances from a single creditor totaling more than $1,250 within 70 days before filing are presumed non-dischargeable.

These presumptions are rebuttable, but the burden shifts to you to show the spending was legitimate. Running up balances or taking cash advances in the months before you file is a common trap.

Debts That Cannot Be Discharged

Some obligations survive bankruptcy regardless of your case type. You still list them, and the automatic stay applies while the case is open, but the debt continues once your case closes.³ The main non-dischargeable categories:

Child support and alimony. Domestic support obligations receive the highest priority in bankruptcy and are never discharged, whether owed directly to a spouse, former spouse, or child, or assigned to a government agency.⁷
Debts for death or personal injury you caused while driving intoxicated on alcohol, drugs, or other substances.⁷
Criminal fines, traffic tickets, and other government penalties for conduct within three years before filing.⁷
Loans against tax-advantaged retirement accounts, such as a 401(k) loan.
HOA fees that come due after your filing date. In Chapter 7 these are generally non-dischargeable; a completed Chapter 13 may discharge them more broadly.

Property settlement debts from a divorce are non-dischargeable in Chapter 7 but may be discharged in Chapter 13, which is one reason some filers with a divorce debt choose Chapter 13.³

Co-Signed Debts

Your discharge eliminates your personal liability, not anyone else’s. A creditor can still pursue a co-signer for the full balance. Chapter 7 gives co-signers no protection — once your debt is discharged, the creditor can demand payment from your co-signer immediately.

Chapter 13 works differently. A co-debtor stay automatically shields your co-signers from collection as long as your plan includes the co-signed debt and you stay current.¹² If you default or the plan doesn’t fully pay the co-signed debt, the creditor can ask the court to lift the co-debtor stay and pursue the co-signer for the balance.

The Automatic Stay While Your Case Is Open

Filing your petition triggers an automatic stay that stops most collection activity — calls, lawsuits, wage garnishments, foreclosure — while your case is pending.¹¹ It applies to every debt you list, including those that ultimately survive discharge.

The stay has limits for repeat filers. If a prior case was dismissed within the past year, the stay expires after 30 days unless you get the court to extend it. If two or more cases were dismissed within the past year, the stay does not take effect at all, and you have to ask the court to impose it.¹¹

Credit Counseling Before You File

You must complete a credit counseling session with an approved nonprofit agency within 180 days before filing.¹³ The session can be done in person, by phone, or online, and covers your budget and possible alternatives to bankruptcy. Skipping it can get your case dismissed. A narrow exception exists if you requested counseling but couldn’t get an appointment within seven days; the court may then give you up to 30 additional days, with a possible 15-day extension for good cause, to complete the requirement. A separate debtor education course is required after filing before the court will enter your discharge.

1
U.S. Courts. Schedule E/F – Creditors Who Have Unsecured Claims
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U.S. Courts. Schedule D – Creditors Who Hold Claims Secured by Property
3
United States Courts. Discharge in Bankruptcy – Bankruptcy Basics
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 U.S.C. 524 – Effect of Discharge
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 U.S.C. 521 – Debtor’s Duties
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 U.S.C. 1322 – Contents of Plan
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 U.S.C. 523 – Exceptions to Discharge
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 U.S.C. 507 – Priorities
9
Internal Revenue Service. Trust Fund Recovery Penalty Overview and Authority
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U.S. Department of Justice. Student Loan Discharge Guidance
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 U.S.C. 362 – Automatic Stay
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 U.S.C. 1301 – Stay of Action Against Codebtor
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 U.S.C. 109 – Who May Be a Debtor