What Does Filing Bankruptcy Get Rid Of—and What It Won’t

Filing for bankruptcy gets rid of most unsecured debts: credit card balances, medical bills, personal loans, old utility bills, payday loans, past-due rent, and deficiency balances left over after a repossession or foreclosure. What bankruptcy will not eliminate is a shorter but important list: child support, alimony, criminal fines and restitution, most recent tax debts, most student loans, debts you incurred through fraud, and debts for willful or malicious injury to someone else. The discharge is the court order that makes the elimination permanent, and it operates as an injunction barring the creditor from ever trying to collect again.¹

Debts a Discharge Wipes Out

The debts most people file bankruptcy to escape are unsecured obligations with no collateral behind them. After discharge, you owe nothing on them. Not the principal, not the interest, not the late fees. The creditor loses the right to sue you, garnish your wages, or contact you about the balance.

Credit card balances, including store cards and lines of credit, unless the debt was run up through fraud
Medical bills, including hospital charges, doctor bills, and ambulance costs
Personal loans from banks, credit unions, or private lenders
Past-due utility bills for electric, gas, water, and phone service
Payday and title loans
Past-due rent (though a discharge will not stop an eviction already in progress)
Deficiency balances left after a repossession or foreclosure

The size of the debt does not change the outcome. A $50,000 medical bill and a $500 utility bill are both gone when the court enters your discharge order.¹

Debts You’ll Still Owe After Bankruptcy

Congress carved out specific categories of debt that survive bankruptcy because of what the obligation is or who it protects. For most of these, the exception applies automatically; the creditor doesn’t have to do anything to keep the debt alive.

Child Support and Alimony

Domestic support obligations are never dischargeable.² You have to stay current on these payments during your bankruptcy case, and the automatic stay that stops other collection activity does not stop support collection from income or property outside the bankruptcy estate.³

Criminal Fines and Restitution

Restitution ordered as part of a criminal sentence survives bankruptcy, and so do criminal fines.⁴ Government-imposed fines and penalties outside the criminal context may also survive, depending on the chapter you file under and the nature of the penalty.

Debts From Fraud, Dishonesty, or Willful Harm

Bankruptcy exists to help honest filers recover from financial misfortune. Debts obtained through fraud or misrepresentation are non-dischargeable. Lying on a credit application, writing bad checks, or using a credit card with no intent to repay all fall into this category. The law also creates a presumption of fraud for specific pre-filing spending: luxury goods or services totaling more than $900 charged to a single creditor within 90 days of filing, or cash advances exceeding $1,250 taken within 70 days of filing.⁵ Those thresholds were adjusted effective April 1, 2025.

Debts for willful and malicious injury to another person or their property also survive, and injuries or death caused by drunk driving are always non-dischargeable.⁴ For fraud and willful injury claims, the creditor typically must file a complaint with the bankruptcy court within 60 days of the first creditors’ meeting. If the creditor misses that deadline, the debt gets discharged by default.⁶

Debts You Didn’t List on Your Schedules

When you file, you have to list every creditor you owe. If you forget a debt or leave it off, it may not be discharged. The reasoning is simple: a creditor who doesn’t know about your case can’t participate in it or object to the discharge. Make the schedules complete.

Taxes: Sometimes Yes, Usually No

Income tax debts sit in a gray zone. They can be discharged, but only if all three of the following timing rules are satisfied:

The tax return was originally due, including extensions, more than three years before you filed for bankruptcy⁷
You actually filed the return more than two years before your bankruptcy filing; if the return was late, the clock starts when the IRS received it⁸
The IRS assessed the tax at least 240 days before you filed, with pauses available for events like a pending offer in compromise⁷

Miss one window and the tax debt is non-dischargeable. Tax debts where you never filed a return, or where you filed a fraudulent return, are never dischargeable.⁸

Student Loans: Hard, Not Impossible

Student loans are technically dischargeable, but the standard is high enough that many borrowers assume they aren’t. To wipe them out, you have to file a separate lawsuit inside your bankruptcy case, called an adversary proceeding, and prove that repaying the loans would cause “undue hardship.” Most courts use the Brunner test, which asks whether you can currently maintain a minimal standard of living while paying, whether your financial situation is likely to persist for most of the repayment period, and whether you’ve made good-faith efforts to repay.⁹

Guidance issued by the Department of Justice and Department of Education in late 2022 directed government attorneys to use more objective criteria when evaluating hardship, including comparing a borrower’s income to IRS expense standards.¹⁰ That shift has made federal student loan discharge somewhat more accessible than it used to be. Private student loans are a separate fight; the lenders holding them can still oppose discharge aggressively.

Secured Debts Work Differently

A mortgage or car loan isn’t a plain unsecured debt. Bankruptcy can discharge your personal liability on the loan, so the lender can never sue you for money. But the lien on the property stays.¹ Stop paying, and the lender can still foreclose on the house or repossess the car. You just won’t owe a deficiency afterward.

In a Chapter 7 case, you generally have three options for secured property:

Reaffirm the debt. You sign a new agreement with the lender, voluntarily waiving the discharge for that specific debt, and keep the property while remaining personally liable. The agreement must be filed with the court within 60 days of the creditors’ meeting.¹¹
Redeem the property. You pay the lender the current fair market value in a single lump sum and keep the item free of the lien. This option is only available for tangible personal property used for personal or household purposes, not real estate.¹²
Surrender the property. You give it back, and your personal liability is discharged.

Reaffirmation is common for people who want to keep a car or home. It carries real risk: if payments later fall apart, you’re back where you started, owing the debt with no bankruptcy discharge to fall back on.

Chapter 7 vs. Chapter 13: Does It Change What’s Discharged?

For most filers, the list of what disappears and what survives is similar under both chapters. Chapter 7 liquidates nonexempt assets and discharges qualifying debts, usually about four months after filing.⁴ Chapter 13 runs on a three-to-five-year repayment plan, with the discharge granted only after you complete the plan.¹³

Chapter 13 historically offered a broader discharge, sometimes called a “superdischarge.” The 2005 bankruptcy reforms narrowed that gap, but Chapter 13 can still discharge a few categories Chapter 7 cannot, including certain willful property damage claims and some non-criminal government fines.¹⁴ Child support, alimony, criminal restitution, recent taxes, and fraud-based debts stay non-dischargeable under either chapter.

If a Creditor Comes After a Discharged Debt

The discharge is a permanent injunction backed by the court. A creditor who tries to collect a discharged debt, whether by calling, mailing, or suing, is violating that injunction. You can reopen your bankruptcy case and file a motion reporting the violation; courts can sanction the creditor through civil contempt, which typically means a fine.⁴ Keep your discharge paperwork for the rest of your life. If a debt collector surfaces years later chasing a wiped-out balance, that document is your proof and your protection.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 524 – Effect of Discharge
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 523 – Exceptions to Discharge
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 362 – Automatic Stay
4
United States Courts. Discharge in Bankruptcy – Bankruptcy Basics
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 523 – Exceptions to Discharge
6
Legal Information Institute. Rule 4007 – Determining Whether a Debt Is Dischargeable
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 507 – Priorities
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 U.S. Code 523 – Exceptions to Discharge
9
Department of Justice. Student Loan Discharge Guidance – Guidance Text
10
FSA Partners. Undue Hardship Discharge of Title IV Loans in Bankruptcy Adversary Proceedings
11
Legal Information Institute. Rule 4008 – Reaffirmation Agreement and Supporting Statement
12
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 722 – Redemption
13
United States Courts. Chapter 13 – Bankruptcy Basics
14
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 U.S. Code 1328 – Discharge