In Illinois, a debtor who is filing for bankruptcy, whether it is chapter 7 or chapter 13 must provide documents to the trustee right after filing. These documents include pay advices and income statements, as well as tax returns.
Most people have their tax returns handy, and can forward a copy. If not, the IRS can send you copies of the tax return transcripts (actually preferred by many of the trustees!). You can call the IRS at 1-800-908-9946 to obtain copies (usually the last 4 years are needed). You can also order them by mail using the following IRS Form 4506-T. Best news, is that they are free!!
You also need to send the last 2 months of pay stubs or income statements to the trustee, and you need to use the information from the last 6 months before filing to help calculate your Means Test Calculation on Form 22.
Hopefully, you have the documents handy, or your employer can reprint them for you. If you are unemployed, you can access your unemployment statements in Illinois here.
This will help expedite your case, as your case can be dismissed for failure to submit these documents to the trustee. For further information, you can contact the attorneys of Leeders & Associates for a free bankruptcy consultation to review all of your options, and filing requirements.
My boss is planning on filing bankruptcy for our company soon and is asking me to collect all the documents we will need for it, so thanks for listing them all down. It may be difficult for me to find the tax returns and loan pay-offs on my own but I’ll do my best to try. I’ll also have to advise him to hire a bankruptcy attorney since it seems that they can help us with the process and ensure everything goes as smoothly as can be.