In re Gonzalez

597 B.R. 133
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, D. Colorado
DecidedSeptember 27, 2018
DocketBankruptcy Case No. 18-10156 EEB
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 597 B.R. 133 (In re Gonzalez) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Bankruptcy Court, D. Colorado primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Gonzalez, 597 B.R. 133 (Colo. 2018).

Opinion

Elizabeth E. Brown, Bankruptcy Judge

THIS MATTER comes before the Court on the Debtors' Motion to confirm their Chapter 13 Plan and the Objection lodged by the chapter 13 trustee ("Trustee"). Both parties have briefed the legal issue presented of how a chapter 13 debtor, who owns and receives income from a business, should calculate his "current monthly income" ("CMI") and, specifically, whether he may deduct business-related expenses before arriving at this income figure.

I. BACKGROUND

In this case, Mr. Gonzalez owns and operates a lawn care business called Rocky Mountain Lawn Pros LLC (the "LLC").1 It performs lawn maintenance, landscaping, and snow removal services. He is the LLC's manager and sole member. While he asserts that he is merely an "employee" of the LLC, he does not receive a paycheck as a salaried employee. Instead he receives the net profit from the business. He calculates it by taking the LLC's gross revenue and subtracting out the LLC's expenses, such as contract labor, dump fees, insurance, tools, and various supplies.

*135The resulting net income figure "passes through" the LLC and becomes his individual taxable income.

When the Debtors filed their chapter 13 petition on January 9, 2018, they filed a Form 122C-1 to calculate their CMI. As permitted on that form, Mr. Gonzalez listed the gross monthly income from the LLC and deducted ordinary and necessary operating business expenses to arrive at a net monthly income figure of $ 2,353. This figure combined with his wife's monthly salary gave the Debtors a total CMI of $ 4,093 per month or $ 49,127 per year. This amount is well below the median family income and, therefore, the Debtors filed a three-year plan.

The Trustee asserts that Debtors calculated their CMI incorrectly. He contends that it should include Mr. Gonzalez's gross, rather than net, business income. Under that scenario, Debtors' combined CMI would increase to $ 11,303.62 per month or $ 135,643.44 per year. This level of income is above the median family income, even for a family of six, which is the size of the Debtors' household. This would require them to propose a five-year plan. The Trustee acknowledges that the Debtors may appropriately deduct business expenses in determining their disposable income to fund a plan, but not when arriving at the CMI figure.

II. DISCUSSION

The length of time a debtor must make plan payments (his "applicable commitment period") is set forth in both § 1322 and § 1325.2 Section 1325(b)(4) sets the floor and § 1322(d) sets the ceiling. Together these two statutes require a below-median income debtor to make payments for no less than three years and no more than five years. The above-median income debtor must make payments for no less than five years and no more than five years or, put more simply, for exactly five years.3

Whether a debtor is an "above-median income debtor" or a "below-median income debtor" is determined by whether his CMI is less than the "median family income." This term is defined in § 101(39A) to refer to the median income as calculated and reported by the U.S. Census Bureau in the most recent year. The Census Bureau bases its numbers on surveys. Its report contains a breakdown of median incomes by both the state of residency and the size of the household. For example, in Colorado, for a one-person household, the median income is $ 56,698. For a six-person household like that of the Debtors, the median is $ 111,272. U.S. Dept. of Justice, U.S. Trustee Program, Census Bureau Median Family Income by Family Size (Cases Filed Between November 1, 2017 and March 31, 2018 Inclusive) , https://www.justice.gov/ust/eo/bapcpa/20171101/bci_data/median_income_table.htm.

The Census Bureau's calculation of median income is based on the debtor's gross income before any deduction for taxes or basic costs of living. "Census money income is defined as income received on a regular basis ... before payments for personal income taxes, social security, union dues, medicare deductions, etc." United States Census Bureau, Income: About , https://www.census.gov/topics/incomepoverty/income/about.html (last revised Feb. 29, 2016). Thus, the Census Bureau excludes sources of income that are not "regular," such as an inheritance *136or a severance payment, but it does not deduct taxes, which may regularly absorb as much as one-third of a debtor's income.

CMI is defined as "the average monthly income from all sources that the debtor receives ... without regard to whether such income is taxable income [during the historical six-month period prior to filing bankruptcy] ...." 11 U.S.C. § 101(10A) (emphasis added). Thus, CMI is a combination of all sources of income that a debtor "receives." There are three specific sources of income that are not included but none are relevant to this case. There is no mention in this definition of any deductions for personal or business expenses. It is focused solely on income.

For the average wage earner, these definitions and calculations are clear and simple to apply. We take the debtor's gross income and compare it to the Census Bureau's calculation based on both the debtor's location and household size. What is less clear is how we do this when the debtor's source of income is derived from a business that he owns. For example, assume that the debtor's business grosses income of $ 300,000, but after business expenses it only nets $ 20,000. If the debtor does not receive a salary from the business and only takes a distribution of the business's net profit, then he would only receive $ 20,000. For purposes of personal income taxation, he would only be taxed on this $ 20,000, not on the $ 300,000 of gross business revenue. See I.R.S. Pub. 334, Tax Guide for Small Business (For Individuals Who Use Schedule C or C-EZ , 2018 WL 1528048 (Jan. 29, 2018). Yet when we calculate this debtor's CMI, should we use the $ 300,000 gross revenues figure or the $ 20,000 net income passed on to the debtor? This is the question that this case presents. Many courts have weighed in on this question, but they do not agree on the answer.

At first blush, it would seem grossly unfair to use the $ 300,000 figure. After all, the debtor never sees anything but the $ 20,000. And requiring him to pay creditors based on the $ 300,000 figure would be impossible. In fact, the Code does not require him to make payments to creditors based on this phantom income figure. Plan payments to creditors are based only on his "disposable income." Disposable income for a below-income debtor is CMI minus the deduction of all kinds of expenses, business and personal. 11 U.S.C. § 1325(b)(2).

Congress could have, and perhaps should have, tied the applicable commitment period or the required plan length to the debtor's

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Bluebook (online)
597 B.R. 133, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-gonzalez-cob-2018.