How do I stop my wage from being garnished when filing for bankruptcy?

Typically I prefer to file bankruptcy after the refund has been received and appropriately spent. But circumstances do not always allow for those circumstances. Depending on the size of your normal tax refunds, but usually the Trustee will not wait for the following year's refund.

It is best to receive your refund and spend it before you file your BK. The Trustee will only look at your tax return for 2014.

The first issue is whether you're refund might be exempt. All states have at least a small wildcard exemption which may be used for any asset - including a tax refund. Some states have a significant exemption, states that use the Federal exemption - have a wildcard exemption (for debtors who do not own their own home) of $8,300. There are other exemptions that might apply, in Ohio portions of the child care credit and the earned income credit are exempt. So if your refund is largely or totally the result of these credits, it's exempt. If your refund is exempt, the trustee can't take it. And you can file without worrying about losing your tax exemption. If your refund isn't exempt, then you should file after you have received your refund and used it as the down payment on your new car. Because if the refund is sitting in your bank account, the trustee can take it.

To stop a garnishment, your attorney will need to advise the creditor and your employer of the bankruptcy filing and provide them with proof. Doing that will be at odds with your desire to protect your tax refund for next year. You will need to decide which way will cost you the least and act accordingly.

First, depending upon the size of your other assets, and the amount of the refund, you may be able to exempt the total refund. Any bankruptcy you file between now and when you receive the refund will have to list the claim for refund on Schedule B, and any possible exemptions on Schedule C. As you know, filing a bankruptcy creates an 'Automatic Stay' of virtually all collection efforts. So in theory as soon as your creditor gets notice of the BR filing, it should stop the garnishment. But in practice, they sometimes neglect to do it. Which is why you should see to it that the Clerk of the Court in which the garnishment is being done is informed of the filing. Letting your payroll office know is also a good idea. It's best in these matters to retain a lawyer experienced in Bankruptcy. If you do, be sure to tell him or her all these facts and concerns. It's not hard to make this all work. Good Luck.

The bankruptcy should stop the wage garnishment. The way it works is that after the bankruptcy case is filed, notice goes out to the creditors that you list in the petition. The attorney for the creditor after receiving the bankruptcy notice will send request to the sheriff to stop the garnishment. Then the sheriff processes the requests by notifying the employer. If when this happens there is money held by the sheriff they typically issue a check to the employer and the employer will either give you the sum in a separate check or include it in the next payroll check. If there is money held at the creditor's they will typically send the check directly to you or to your attorney. Typically this takes about a week or two, you can expedite by faxing the bankruptcy notice to the attorney for the creditor rather than waiting for snail mail notice to reach them. As far as refund, I assume you are talking about a tax refund. Whether you get to keep it all or some, will depend on if the amount of refund can fit inside an exemption and be exempted from the creditors reach. To know this I would need to understand the amount of the refund and also the types and values of your other assets. Assets is basically anything of value, including potential lawsuits/claims against another (for example: personal injury, workmen's comp) and debt owed to you as well as other things like cars, boats, household goods, timeshares, etc. Hopefully the refund would fit under the California wildcard exemption, assuming you are entitled to use California exemptions and the specific type known as the 703s. In California we have two sets of exemptions. If the tax refund fits into an exemption, you list it on your schedule B as an asset and then exempt it on Schedule C. If you hire an attorney to handle your case you will want to disclose to them your assets, including the tax refund amount. They will do the exemption analysis and let you know if filing right now makes sense or if it's better to wait.

Unless you are expecting a refund upwards of $10,000, the federal exemptions should be sufficient to cover any tax refunds you might be expecting, and the trustee would not be able to claim them. S/he might still ask for a copy of your tax returns when you prepare them, just to verify the amount of refund you get. If you do not qualify for the federal exemptions, then it may be better to wait until you have received your refund and purchased another car, so that you can claim the vehicle exemption. You should get a free consultation from an attorney to advise you on the best exemption strategy. You also have to consider how much you would be garnished if you wait for 2 or 3 months to receive and spend your refund.

Your information is garbled. If you are speaking of income tax refunds, they are prolly of the bankrupt estate. Whether or not they accrue is up to you and therefore none should exist next year.