The means test is arithmetic, not a judgment about whether you deserve help. It averages the income you actually received over the six full calendar months before the month you file, multiplies it by twelve, and compares the result to the median income for a Nevada household your size. At or below that line, the Bankruptcy Code bars the court, the U.S. Trustee, the case trustee, and your creditors from arguing that your Chapter 7 is an abuse.
The six months it looks at are probably not the six months you think
Current monthly income is defined in section 101(10A) of the Bankruptcy Code as your average monthly income over the six-month period ending on the last day of the calendar month before you file. File in October and the window runs April 1 through September 30. File on November 2 instead and it becomes May 1 through October 31, with April dropping out entirely.
That is why timing is sometimes the whole case. Say you earned $4,200 a month and were laid off at the end of July with nothing coming in since. File in October and the test looks at April through September: four months of full paychecks plus any severance, averaging near $3,000 a month even though your income today is zero. Wait until January and the window is mostly the period after the layoff. Same person, same debts, a very different number.
Income means more than your paycheck
The statute says income from all sources, whether or not it is taxable. Wages, overtime, bonuses, commissions, tips, side work, rental income, and regular help from family all go in. So does money someone else in the household pays on a regular basis toward your household expenses, which catches people off guard when a partner or adult child covers part of the rent.
A few things are carved out by the statute itself: Social Security Act benefits, payments to victims of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and terrorism, and certain military disability payments. Section 707(b)(2)(D) also takes certain disabled veterans and recently activated reservists and National Guard members out of the means test altogether.
Being over the line does not mean Chapter 7 is closed to you
If your annualized income is above the median, you move to the long form. There you deduct allowed living expenses, your scheduled secured debt payments spread over sixty months, and priority debts such as recent taxes and support arrears. If what is left, multiplied by sixty, falls under the dollar thresholds the statute sets, no presumption of abuse arises and the case goes forward. If the presumption does arise, section 707(b)(2)(B) lets you rebut it with special circumstances, such as a serious medical condition or a call to active duty, but you have to itemize, document, explain, and swear to the expense. If none of that works, Chapter 13 is still there.
What the trustee is actually reading
I serve as one of four Chapter 7 panel trustees in the District of Nevada, so I read these forms from the other side of the table. Section 521 requires you to turn over the pay advices you received in the sixty days before filing, and the first thing that happens is a comparison: do the stubs, Schedule I, and the means test form tell the same story? Under section 704(b)(1), a statement about whether a case is presumed to be an abuse is filed within ten days after the first meeting of creditors.
What draws attention is almost never a close number. It is a number that cannot be reconciled with the documents: a bonus that quietly disappeared, overtime averaged out of existence, a roommate's regular contribution that never made it onto a schedule. Honest math that comes out tight is ordinary; math that does not match the paperwork is what creates problems.
Whether to file now or wait depends on facts no calculator knows
It varies. A high six-month average with no income now may argue for waiting; a bonus, a tax refund, or a new job next month may argue against it. A garnishment already running, a pending repossession, or a lawsuit on file can outweigh the means test entirely. The only way to know is to run your actual six months.
If you are trying to work out where you land, a free consultation costs nothing and happens by phone or video call. The Law Office of Brian D. Shapiro, LLC starts Chapter 7 cases with $0 down in attorney fees: no attorney fees until after the petition is filed, though the court's filing fee is paid before filing. Call 702-386-8600.