A Chapter 13 plan requirements checklist starts with three mandatory provisions under 11 U.S.C. § 1322(a): you must commit enough future income to the trustee to fund the plan, pay priority claims in full, and treat every claim in the same class identically. On top of those, the court will only confirm the plan if it also satisfies four tests under § 1325 — good faith, the liquidation floor, projected disposable income, and feasibility — and runs for the correct length based on your household income. Miss any of these and confirmation fails.
Eligibility Comes First
Before plan design matters, you have to be eligible to file Chapter 13 at all. The chapter is only open to individuals with regular income. As of April 1, 2025, unsecured debts must be less than $526,700 and secured debts must be less than $1,580,125.1United States Courts. Chapter 13 Bankruptcy Basics2Federal Register. Adjustment of Certain Dollar Amounts Applicable to Bankruptcy Cases Cross either limit and Chapter 13 is not available. Self-employed people and sole proprietors qualify as long as their income is regular, and every required tax return for the four tax years before filing must be on file.3Internal Revenue Service. Chapter 13 Bankruptcy – Voluntary Reorganization of Debt for Individuals
The Three Provisions Every Plan Must Contain
Section 1322(a) is short and unforgiving. Leave out any of the following and the plan cannot be confirmed.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 1322 – Contents of Plan
Commit future income to the trustee. The plan must turn over enough of your future earnings, or other future income, to the standing Chapter 13 trustee to carry the plan out. The trustee collects each monthly payment and distributes it to creditors on the plan’s terms.
Pay priority claims in full. Priority claims under § 507 — domestic support obligations like child support and alimony, and certain tax debts — must be paid in full through deferred cash payments, unless the specific priority creditor agrees to different treatment.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 507 – Priorities That exception is largely theoretical for support obligations, since support recipients rarely accept less.
Treat every claim in a class the same. If the plan puts claims into classes, each claim in a class must receive identical treatment. You cannot favor one credit card issuer over another when both sit in the same class.
The Four Confirmation Tests
Filing a plan does not confirm it. Section 1325 lists the hurdles the court applies before approval.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 1325 – Confirmation of Plan
Good Faith
The plan must be proposed in good faith. Courts weigh the totality of the circumstances: is the filer abusing the process, hiding assets, or filing mainly to delay one creditor? There is no formula. A judge who concludes the plan is manipulation rather than genuine reorganization can deny confirmation on this ground alone.
The Liquidation Test
Unsecured creditors must receive at least what they would have gotten if your assets had been sold off in Chapter 7. You take your nonexempt property, subtract hypothetical Chapter 7 administration costs and liens, and the result is the minimum the plan has to pay unsecured creditors. Own substantial nonexempt property and your plan payments climb, even on a modest income.
Projected Disposable Income
If the trustee or any unsecured creditor objects to confirmation, the court cannot approve the plan unless you commit all of your projected disposable income for the entire plan length. Disposable income is current monthly income minus what you reasonably need for living expenses, ongoing domestic support obligations, and, for the self-employed, necessary business costs. Charitable contributions up to 15 percent of gross income are excluded. Above-median filers feel this test hardest, because their “reasonable” expenses are set by IRS-based expense standards rather than what they actually spend.
Feasibility
The court must find you can actually make the payments. Numbers that don’t add up, unstable income, no cushion for an unexpected bill — any of these can produce a feasibility denial. Judges examine income history and whether the budget still leaves enough for basic living expenses.
How Long the Plan Must Run
Plan length is not up to you. If your annualized monthly income meets or exceeds the applicable state median family income for a household of your size, the plan generally must run five years. Below the median, the default is three years, though the court can approve longer for cause. No plan may exceed five years under any circumstances.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 1322 – Contents of Plan Median figures for each state are published by the Department of Justice using Census data.7U.S. Department of Justice. Census Bureau Median Family Income By Family Size
Optional Powers the Plan Can Use
Section 1322(b) contains the tools that make Chapter 13 useful beyond mere repayment. These are optional, and much of a plan’s strategic value comes from choosing which to invoke.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 1322 – Contents of Plan
Cramdown on Secured Debt
The plan can reduce a secured loan to the current value of its collateral. Owe $15,000 on a car worth $9,000, and the plan can treat $9,000 as secured (paid with interest at a court-approved rate) and the remaining $6,000 as unsecured, which may pay only a fraction. The tool applies to car loans, furniture financing, and other secured debts.
The big exception is the 910-day rule for vehicles. A car bought for personal use on a loan taken out within 910 days before filing cannot be crammed down; the lender’s full balance stays secured regardless of the vehicle’s actual value.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 1325 – Confirmation of Plan This restriction applies only to purchase-money loans. Refinances and title loans on vehicles you already owned are not covered by the 910-day bar.
The Anti-Modification Rule for Home Mortgages
A Chapter 13 plan cannot modify the rights of a creditor whose claim is secured only by your principal residence. No reducing the balance, no lowering the interest rate, no extending the term — even if the home is underwater. The phrase “secured only by” matters. If the mortgage also covers other collateral, or if a junior lien is entirely unsecured because the senior mortgage swallows the home’s value, the bar may not apply.
Curing Defaults on Long-Term Debts
Section 1322(b)(5) lets you cure missed payments on any long-term debt whose final payment falls after the plan ends. This is the provision that saves homes from foreclosure. Fall behind by $12,000 on your mortgage before filing, and the plan spreads that arrearage over three to five years while you resume regular monthly mortgage payments on time outside the plan. Complete the plan and the arrearage is cured; the original loan continues on its terms.1United States Courts. Chapter 13 Bankruptcy Basics
There is a hard deadline. You can only cure a default on your principal residence if the home has not yet been sold at a foreclosure sale under state law. Once the sale is complete, the right to cure is gone.
Co-Signer Protection
The plan can classify co-signed consumer debts separately and direct more money to them, so the co-signer isn’t left facing collection after the plan ends. Separate classification cannot unfairly discriminate against other unsecured creditors, but courts recognize protecting a co-signer as a legitimate reason for it.
Costs Built Into Your Payments
Not every dollar you pay reaches creditors. The standing Chapter 13 trustee takes a percentage-based fee on each payment, up to 10 percent, deducted before distributions.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 586 – Duties; Supervision by Attorney General The exact percentage varies by district. Attorney fees for Chapter 13 are also usually paid through the plan and can run several thousand dollars depending on where you file.
Debts the Plan Cannot Discharge
Completing every payment earns a discharge of most remaining debts, but several categories survive under §§ 1328(a) and 523(a).9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 1328 – Discharge
- Long-term debts still in repayment, such as a 30-year mortgage cured through the plan, continue on their original terms.
- Criminal restitution and fines imposed as part of a sentence.
- Debts obtained through fraud or false pretenses.
- Civil judgments for willful and malicious injury causing personal injury or death.
- Domestic support obligations, which are never dischargeable.
- Certain tax debts, including priority tax claims, fraudulent returns, and taxes for which no return was filed.
Student loans are generally nondischargeable unless you file a separate adversary proceeding and prove undue hardship — a standard that is difficult to meet.
What Happens If the Plan Fails
Missing payments doesn’t automatically end the case, but it starts a clock. The trustee or a creditor can move to dismiss the case or convert it to Chapter 7, and the court chooses whichever serves creditors’ best interests.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 1307 – Conversion or Dismissal Grounds for involuntary dismissal or conversion include missed plan payments, failure to file a plan on time, material default on a plan term, unpaid post-petition domestic support, unreasonable delay that prejudices creditors, and failure to file tax returns required under § 1308.
You always keep the right to voluntarily dismiss or convert to Chapter 7, and any waiver of that right is unenforceable. Converting can make sense when the financial picture has collapsed beyond repair, though a Chapter 7 trustee may sell nonexempt assets that Chapter 13 was protecting.
Hardship Discharge
If circumstances outside your control keep you from finishing the plan, you can ask for a hardship discharge. Courts grant it sparingly. You must show three things: the failure to complete is due to circumstances you should not be held accountable for (serious illness, job loss), unsecured creditors have already received at least the Chapter 7 liquidation amount, and modification is not a workable alternative.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 1328 – Discharge The hardship discharge is narrower than a completion discharge: all of the § 523(a) exceptions apply, so fewer debts are wiped out.