Who Can File Chapter 7: Means Test and Waiting Periods

You can file Chapter 7 bankruptcy if your income is low enough to pass the means test, you have not received a bankruptcy discharge too recently, you are not inside a short-term refiling bar, and you complete an approved credit counseling session before filing. Most people who qualify do so on income alone: if your household earns at or below your state’s median for your family size, you pass the means test automatically. Higher earners can still qualify through a second-stage calculation. A few groups, including certain veterans and filers whose debts are mostly business-related, skip the means test entirely.

The Means Test

The means test is the central income screen for Chapter 7. Congress added it through the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 to keep filers who could realistically repay some of their debts out of full liquidation.¹ It runs in two stages, and most filers never get past the first one.

Stage One: Your Income Against the State Median

Start with your “current monthly income,” which is the average of all gross income you received during the six full calendar months before the month you file. Wages, self-employment income, rental income, interest, dividends, and regular contributions to household expenses from a non-filing spouse all count. Social Security benefits do not.¹

Compare that monthly figure to the median income for a household of your size in your state. At or below the median, you pass. No further calculation, no second stage.

Stage Two: The Disposable Income Calculation

If your income exceeds the state median, the test looks at whether you have enough left over each month to fund a repayment plan. Standardized IRS collection allowances for housing, transportation, food, and other living costs are subtracted from your monthly income. Your actual budget is largely beside the point at this stage.

The remaining monthly amount is multiplied by 60, representing a five-year repayment window. Where that total lands determines whether the court presumes you are abusing Chapter 7:

$17,150 or more: the presumption of abuse applies, and the court will expect you to move to Chapter 13.
Between $10,275 and $17,150: presumption of abuse applies only if that amount would pay at least 25 percent of your unsecured debts.
Below $10,275: no presumption of abuse, even though your income is above the median.²

These thresholds were last adjusted effective April 1, 2025, and are the figures in effect for 2026. Older guides and court forms still show the previous numbers ($15,150 and $9,075); those are out of date.²

A presumption of abuse is not the end of the case. You can rebut it by showing “special circumstances” that justify additional expenses the standard deductions miss. A serious medical condition or a job loss that hit after the six-month look-back period are the situations courts most often accept. You need itemized documentation showing each extra expense is both necessary and reasonable. Without it, the court will either dismiss the case or push you into Chapter 13.

Filers Who Skip the Means Test

Several groups qualify for Chapter 7 without taking the means test at all.

Below-median-income filers. If your household income is at or below the state median, you pass on income and never touch stage two.

Filers with primarily business debts. The means test applies only where a debtor’s obligations are “primarily consumer debts.” Most courts read “primarily” as more than half. If over 50 percent of your total debt comes from business activity, personal guarantees on business loans, or investment losses rather than personal spending, the means test does not apply.

Certain disabled veterans. A veteran with a service-connected disability rated at 30 percent or higher, or who was discharged because of a disability incurred or worsened in the line of duty, is exempt from the means test. Most of the debt must have been incurred while the veteran was on active duty or performing a homeland defense activity.

National Guard and Reserve members. Guard members or reservists called to active duty or homeland defense duty for at least 90 days after September 11, 2001, are exempt while on active duty and for 540 days afterward. The requirement resumes 14 days after that exclusion period ends.

Waiting Periods After a Previous Discharge

Even a passing means test result won’t help if a prior bankruptcy is still too recent. Federal law imposes mandatory waiting periods between discharges, and the clock runs from filing date to filing date, not from the date the earlier discharge was granted.

Chapter 7 after a prior Chapter 7: eight years from the filing date of the earlier case, if that case resulted in a discharge.³
Chapter 7 after a prior Chapter 13: six years from the filing date of the earlier Chapter 13. This bar does not apply if you paid 100 percent of your unsecured creditors through the Chapter 13 plan, or paid at least 70 percent in a plan proposed in good faith with your best repayment effort.³

These rules block a new discharge, not necessarily a new filing, and they only bite when the earlier case actually produced a discharge. A case that was dismissed before discharge doesn’t trigger the multi-year waiting periods, though other filing bars can.

The 180-Day Refiling Bar

A separate, shorter bar can block anyone, discharge or no discharge. For 180 days after certain dismissals, you cannot file any bankruptcy petition at all. The rule targets filers who look like they are using bankruptcy to stall creditors rather than resolve debt.⁴

The 180-day lockout applies in two situations. First, when a court dismisses your case because you failed to appear at required hearings or disobeyed court orders. Second, when you voluntarily dismissed your own case after a creditor had already filed a motion to lift the automatic stay. Judges can extend the bar in extreme cases; a pattern of filing and dismissing has led some courts to impose bars of a year or longer.

Repeat Filings and the Automatic Stay

Being eligible to file is not the same as getting full protection when you file. Normally, filing a bankruptcy petition triggers an automatic stay that immediately halts most collections, lawsuits, garnishments, and foreclosure actions. Recent prior cases weaken or eliminate that shield.

If you file a new case within one year of having a prior case dismissed, the automatic stay in the new case expires after 30 days unless you convince the court to extend it by showing good faith. If two or more of your cases were dismissed within the prior year, no automatic stay takes effect at all when you file again. You would need to ask the court to impose one and prove the new filing is legitimate.

Credit Counseling Before You File

Every individual filer must complete a briefing with an approved nonprofit credit counseling agency before filing the petition. The session covers your finances and walks through alternatives to bankruptcy. It has to happen within the 180 days before your filing date, and the agency must appear on the approved list maintained by the U.S. Trustee Program.⁵ The certificate of completion gets filed with your petition. Filing without it, or filing a certificate from an unapproved agency, leads to dismissal.⁶

Sessions typically cost $10 to $50. Agencies must offer reduced-cost or free sessions to filers who cannot afford the fee.

A second, separate course called debtor education is required after filing, before the court will grant your discharge. It is not part of eligibility to file, but skipping it will cost you the discharge itself.

One Boundary Worth Knowing Before You File

Qualifying for Chapter 7 tells you the door is open. It doesn’t tell you what walks out with you. Several categories of debt survive a Chapter 7 discharge no matter how cleanly you qualify, including domestic support obligations, recent tax debts, most student loans absent a separate undue-hardship proceeding, criminal restitution, and liability for death or personal injury caused by driving under the influence.⁷ If most of what you owe falls into those categories, being eligible to file may not translate into meaningful relief. That’s a separate question from who can file, but it’s the one to answer next.

1
United States Bankruptcy Court District of Arizona. What Is the Chapter 7 Means Test
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 707 – Dismissal of a Case or Conversion to a Case Under Chapter 11 or 13
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 727 – Discharge
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 109 – Who May Be a Debtor
5
United States Department of Justice. Credit Counseling and Debtor Education Information
6
United States Courts. Credit Counseling and Debtor Education Courses
7
United States Courts. Chapter 7 – Bankruptcy Basics