What Debts Are Not Discharged in Bankruptcy?

Bankruptcy clears most unsecured debt, but several categories survive a discharge order no matter which chapter you file. Federal law, in 11 U.S.C. § 523, keeps the following on your balance sheet after your case closes: child support and alimony, most tax debts, student loans, debts tied to fraud or theft, injury or death caused by drunk driving, criminal fines and restitution, certain HOA fees, and debts you failed to list on your schedules. That is the short answer to what debts are not discharged in bankruptcy. The details below explain which rules are absolute, which have exceptions, and where Chapter 13 reaches further than Chapter 7.¹

Child Support, Alimony, and Divorce Debts

Domestic support obligations are never dischargeable. That covers current child support and alimony as well as any arrears you’ve built up. The automatic stay that halts most collection activity when you file does not stop support enforcement against property outside the bankruptcy estate, so wage garnishment, tax refund intercepts, and driver’s license suspensions can continue while your case is pending.²

Divorce decrees often create other financial obligations beyond support: a promise to pay off a joint credit card, take over a car loan, or hand your ex-spouse a cash equalization payment. In Chapter 7, these property-settlement debts owed to a spouse, former spouse, or child survive discharge the same way support does. Chapter 13 treats them differently; property-settlement debts can be wiped out at the end of a completed repayment plan, but support obligations still cannot.³

Tax Debts

Some income taxes can be discharged, but only if the debt clears three timing hurdles. All three must be met:

The return must have been due at least three years before you filed, including extensions.
If you filed late, the return must have been actually filed at least two years before your petition date.
The taxing authority must have assessed the tax more than 240 days before you filed. Time spent on an offer in compromise or under a prior bankruptcy stay extends the window.⁴

Taxes for which you never filed a return, filed a fraudulent return, or willfully tried to evade payment are non-dischargeable regardless of age.¹

Trust Fund Taxes

Payroll taxes withheld from employee paychecks (income tax, Social Security, and Medicare) and sales tax collected from customers are trust fund taxes. They are never dischargeable because the money was held in trust for the government, not earned by the business.⁵

Interest and penalties follow the underlying tax: if the tax itself is discharged, they go with it; if the tax survives, so do they.⁶

Student Loans

Federal and private student loans are not discharged unless you prove that repayment would impose an undue hardship on you and your dependents. Proof requires filing a separate lawsuit, called an adversary proceeding, within the bankruptcy case.

Most federal courts apply the Brunner test, which asks three things: whether you can maintain a minimal standard of living while repaying, whether your financial situation is unlikely to improve for a significant portion of the repayment period, and whether you made good-faith efforts to repay before filing. Some courts use a broader totality-of-the-circumstances approach, but either standard has historically been hard to meet.

The Federal Attestation Process

In late 2022, the Department of Justice and the Department of Education rolled out a streamlined process for undue hardship claims on federal student loans. The debtor completes an attestation form under penalty of perjury detailing income, expenses, assets, and repayment history.⁷ DOJ attorneys then compare the debtor’s expenses against IRS collection financial standards to decide whether payments are affordable alongside a minimal standard of living.

Facts that weigh in your favor include being 65 or older, having loans in repayment for at least 10 years, not completing the degree the loans funded, a disability that limits earning capacity, or unemployment for at least five of the past ten years. When the government agrees the facts show undue hardship, it can stipulate to discharge rather than force a trial.

Debts From Fraud, Theft, or Misconduct

Money, property, or services you obtained through fraud or false pretenses cannot be discharged. The same goes for debts from embezzlement, larceny, or fraud committed while acting as a fiduciary.

Two kinds of pre-filing spending trigger an automatic presumption of fraud. Consumer debts to a single creditor totaling more than $900 for luxury goods or services incurred within 90 days before filing are presumed non-dischargeable, as are cash advances totaling more than $1,250 from open-end credit plans taken within 70 days before filing.⁸ Those thresholds were adjusted upward on April 1, 2025. The presumption can be rebutted, but the burden sits with you to show the spending was not fraudulent.

Willful and Malicious Injury

Debts for intentional injury to another person or their property are non-dischargeable in Chapter 7. The conduct has to be deliberate or intentionally harmful; mere carelessness is not enough. Chapter 13 is narrower here: only injury to people (including death) is excepted from discharge, so damage to property alone may be wiped out after a completed plan.⁹

DUI Injury and Death

Any debt for death or personal injury caused while you were operating a motor vehicle, boat, or aircraft while intoxicated is non-dischargeable in every chapter of bankruptcy. The creditor does not have to file a separate complaint; the non-dischargeability is automatic.

Criminal Fines and Restitution

Fines, penalties, and forfeitures payable to a government unit survive discharge when they are punitive rather than compensation for a financial loss. This covers criminal fines, traffic tickets, and regulatory sanctions. Criminal restitution ordered under federal law is separately protected.

The punitive-versus-compensatory line matters. A civil judgment ordering you to pay actual damages for someone’s financial loss is not automatically swept up by this exception; the government-fine rule reaches penalties meant to punish or deter, not awards that make a private party whole.

HOA and Condo Assessments After Filing

If you own a condo, co-op, or home in a homeowners association, dues and assessments that come due after you file are non-dischargeable for as long as you (or the trustee) hold an ownership interest in the property. The rule catches homeowners who stop paying after filing while still living in or holding title to the unit. Amounts already past due on the filing date are treated as regular unsecured debt and can be discharged. The dividing line is whether the assessment became due before or after you filed. This post-petition exception does not apply to a Chapter 13 discharge.

Debts You Didn’t List

You must list every creditor on your bankruptcy schedules. A creditor you leave off who does not receive timely notice of the case may be able to collect even after discharge, because the omission denied them the chance to participate or object.

Many Chapter 7 cases are no-asset cases with nothing to distribute. In those situations most courts take a practical view: if the omission was an honest mistake and the creditor would not have been paid anyway, the debt is generally still treated as discharged. Courts look at whether the creditor was actually harmed by being left out.

What Chapter 13 Can Discharge That Chapter 7 Cannot

Completing a three-to-five-year Chapter 13 repayment plan gives you a somewhat broader discharge. Several debts that survive Chapter 7 can be eliminated at the end of a Chapter 13:¹⁰

Debts for willful damage to someone else’s property, as long as no personal injury is involved.
Property-settlement debts from a divorce (support obligations still cannot be discharged).
Debts you incurred to pay a non-dischargeable tax, such as using a credit card to pay the IRS.
HOA assessments that came due after filing.

Even in Chapter 13, these remain permanently non-dischargeable: domestic support obligations, taxes that fail the timing rules, student loans without an undue hardship finding, fraud-related debts, DUI injury and death claims, and criminal restitution.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 523 – Exceptions to Discharge
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 362 – Automatic Stay
3
United States Courts. Discharge in Bankruptcy – Bankruptcy Basics
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 507 – Priorities
5
Internal Revenue Service. Bankruptcy Frequently Asked Questions
6
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 908 – Bankruptcy Tax Guide
7
U.S. Department of Justice. Student Loan Attestation Fillable Form
8
Federal Register. Adjustment of Certain Dollar Amounts Applicable to Bankruptcy Cases
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 1328 – Discharge
10
United States Courts. Chapter 13 – Bankruptcy Basics