Saturday, December 15, 2007

Above-median-income Chapter 13 debtor could not deduct secured debt payments he would not be making on surrendered home.

In calculating the "projected disposable income" that he would have to devote to the payment of unsecured creditors in order to confirm, over the objection of the trustee, a plan which would result in less than a 100% payout to creditors, an above-median-income Chapter 13 debtor could not deduct, as "amounts scheduled as contractually due to secured creditors," the monthly payments that he would not have to make on a mobile home that he was surrendering. While the debtor may have been under a contractual obligation to make these payments on the petition date, a determination of the "amounts scheduled as contractually due to secured creditors" could not be made, at least in the Chapter 13 context for "projected disposable income" purposes, based solely on the facts as they existed on the petition date, without regard to circumstances existing at the time of confirmation or that would result from confirmation.

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