Do I need to provide my joint account bank statement?
I am in bankruptcy for 3 years. I recently got married and my husband and I opened a joint bank account. He does not declare his income and therefore my allowed income is cut in half. My paycheque still goes into my bank account and I transfer it out to our joint account. My trustee wants my bank statement which I give them but my husband does not want to give them our joint account since he is not bankrupt and believes it is private. Is this true? Thanks.
Posted from: British Columbia
As the bankrupt individual you have an obligation to provide the Trustee will all of your documentation as requested, particularly the records that show your income earned during the bankruptcy period. Since your pay cheques are deposited into your account first, by providing those bank statements and your pay stubs you are meeting this obligation and the Trustee should not need your joint account statement to verify your income.
However, there may be another reason why the trustee is requesting access to those account statements and whether you provide them or not the Trustee would be able to write to the bank and get those statements from the bank directly. So even if you refuse to provide the statements the trustee can still access the information.
I would recommend first talking with your trustee to find out why they require that account information in addition to what you already provided. It may be that your pay stubs and your bank statement is sufficient to meet their needs. If they do want access to the statements from the joint account, you can black out your husband’s income or any deposits that are related to his income. This way, the trustee can still see the deposits made from your account but will not have access to his information. This may also be enough to satisfy the Trustee’s needs while still maintaining your husband’s privacy.