Creditor data for a Means Test inside a case is controlled from the Form 22 tab in the creditor. This tab appears for both Secured and Priority Creditors. You’ll indicate on that tab whether you want to include the creditor in the means test. On the mortgage creditor you should select Mortgage and enter the amount owed on the mortgage over the next 60 months (usually the house payment x 60), not the entire amount of the mortgage (unless it actually pays off in that period). BankruptcyPRO® will divide the amount you enter by 60 to calculate the “60-month average payment.” If there is
arrearage owed on the house, and you have added the arrearage creditor by clicking on the make arrearage claim button on the Plan tab in a Chapter 13 case in
BankruptcyPRO® (and you’re facing South?), you’ll be able to use the Retrieve
Amount from Arrearage Claim button in the Cure Amount section on the Form 22 tab to pull the arrearage in from that claim. If these conditions are not met, you can just type in the arrearage amount. BankruptcyPRO® will divide the amount by 60 to calculate the “60-month average payment.”
On the vehicle creditors, you will probably enter the amount owed on the car, unless the payments exceed 60 months. Again, the form is asking for the amount due
contractually for the next 60 months. BankruptcyPRO® will divide the amount you enter by 60 to get the “60-month average payment.”
You will also be able to select Other for the type of secured creditor to have non-vehicle and non-mortgage creditors sent to the section of the appropriate Means Test form for Future Payments on Secured Claims.
IMPORTANT NOTE: BankruptcyPRO® will warn you if the Means Test data and the case data relating to the Means Test are not synchronized at several different points in the program. There is considerable error trapping built into the program. Of course the ultimate error trap will be your review of the forms. If you change the chapter in the case and have a different chapter selected for your Means Test form,
BankruptcyPRO® will notify you that there is a mismatch when you try to print the Means Test form. You may see a red notation on the Official Forms tab near the Means Test form selection. You may see a notation in the Problems box on the Print Forms area in the Means Test. Clicking on a problem in that box will take you to the area in the Means Test calculator where there is a difference. There is also a button on the basic client information screen in the means test to Update Form 22 from the Case data. If you have changed creditor information in the case, you can use this button to pass that updated information to the Form 22 data. Once you have a Means Test inside the case, you should make creditor changes in the creditors rather than in the Means Test. The program will notice discrepancies from the case to the form and will offer to update the means test from the case data. Changes you make in the Means Test DO NOT update the case information and will be overwritten if you accept the update offer at the prompt. This is a one-way street. Again, the Means Test data does not update the case data. Once your Means Test is inside a case, make your changes in the case creditors to get the changes into the Means Test. If you need to have the case and the Means Test reflect different information then click No when asked if you wish to update from the case data. BankruptcyPRO® will continue to prompt if there are any
mismatches. If you don’t resolve the mismatches, you may have some problems with FlashFiling (our automated electronic filing). This is because there are certain
parameters that must be passed to the court for that to work smoothly. If you don’t resolve the mismatches in between the case and the Means Test, the program does not know how to set those parameters and is therefore unable to pass the information to the court’s computer.
Step by Step
Form 22A—Statement of Current Monthly Income and Means Test
Calculation (Chapter 7), Form 22B—Statement of Current Monthly
Income (Chapter 11), and Form 22C—Statement of Current Monthly
Income and Calculation of Commitment Period and Disposable
Income (Chapter 13)
Disclaimer
Each Form 22, is programmed line-by-line into BankruptcyPRO®. As stated above, you can go directly through the Wizard clicking Next each time or jump around to address specific lines. For this run-through, we’ll go through each line in sequence for the most part and give you an idea how the program works. We must insert a serious disclaimer here, though. We have done our best to make sure the form works correctly and have had all of them reviewed by attorneys who practice bankruptcy law. However, we are not attorneys and do not presume to give you advice about what should be entered anywhere in the forms. This explanation is to give you an idea of how the math
forms you print carefully before you file them. We don’t think there are mathematical errors, but there are some portions of the form that we understand are being debated or interpreted differently. We have given you the option to override some of the data if you wish.
If you find calculations you feel are incorrect, please contact us immediately.