Is my wife allowed to refuse to disclose her income?
Hi,
I signed for my bankruptcy in December 2014. It is now after seven months and I must send my proof of income.
When I signed for bankruptcy, I gave my spouse income information. We were well under the surplus family income limit.
Things changed during those months and I stayed at home with my baby and my wife went to work with a big pay increase.
We are now over the surplus income. Is my wife allowed to refuse to disclose her income after we initially agreed?
I am aware that I would be entitled to 50% family surplus income, but since I had to income for 5 of the seven months, this would work in my favour.
Please let me know,
Thank you.
Technically your wife can refuse to disclose her income at this time though she may need to put that refusal in writing as it is contrary to her actions at the beginning of the bankruptcy. Your trustee would then make a judgement call about whether they would accept this refusal or challenge it. You are correct that your surplus income allowance would be reduced by 50% . I am not sure if you really need to have your wife consider refusing to disclose her income if you had no income for 5 of the 7 months of the bankruptcy. If you are the only bankrupt individual and you had no income then your surplus income obligation would be ‘0’ for those 5 months regardless of how much your spouse earned. When in bankruptcy you only have to pay your portion of the household surplus income obligation. For example, if you contributed 25% of the household income you would have to pay 25% of the surplus income amount. This means if you did not contribute to the household income at all, your amount owing would be nil.