Federal Bankruptcy Exemption Wildcard?
I’m filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in the state of Minnesota, and to my knowledge they allow us to choose either State or Federal exemptions. I have no assets but a decent amount of debt from a business that went under. I have some cash in the bank and thats really it.
Because I dont have a house my question is how the Federal Wildcard works. I’m looking at the 2004 wildcard (it could be different now) "Up to ,250 of unused homestead exemption amount, for any property" . I don’t have a homestead so basically does this mean I can use up to ,250 for my personal property? . The other section of the wildcard says "5 of any property" so this is why I ask. With the law changes this could all be different since 2004. Please advise?
One Response
DLeibowitz
28 Apr 2010
As I understand the law, you can "stack" your exemptions. In other words, absent any real estate, you can add the "wildcard" exemption to the unused homestead exemption to exempt personal property. Moreover, these amounts have increased owing to inflation, effective April 1.
So $975 goes up to $1075 and $9250 goes up to $10,775