Federal Bankruptcy Exemptions Chart: Amounts, Caps, and Doubling

The federal bankruptcy exemptions chart below shows the maximum dollar amount you can protect in each category of property when you file for Chapter 7 or Chapter 13. The current figures took effect April 1, 2025, and remain in place through March 31, 2028, when the Judicial Conference of the United States next adjusts them for inflation.¹

Federal Bankruptcy Exemption Amounts by Category

Every figure below comes from 11 U.S.C. § 522 and applies per individual filer.¹

Real Property

Homestead (equity in your primary residence, including houses, condominiums, cooperatives, mobile homes, and burial plots): $31,575

Personal Property

Motor vehicle equity: $5,025
Household goods and furnishings, per individual item (covers furniture, appliances, clothing, books, animals, crops, musical instruments): $800
Household goods and furnishings, aggregate cap across all items: $16,850
Jewelry, total value: $2,125
Tools of the trade (implements, books, and equipment used for your job or business): $3,175
Unmatured life insurance policy loan value, accrued dividends, or interest: $16,850
Any unmatured life insurance contract (other than credit life insurance): unlimited
Professionally prescribed health aids for you or a dependent: unlimited

The Wildcard

Wildcard base, applied to any property: $1,675
Additional wildcard drawn from unused homestead exemption: up to $15,800
Maximum wildcard when no homestead is claimed ($1,675 + $15,800): $17,475

The wildcard is the piece of the chart that changes shape with your situation. If you own no home, the full $17,475 sits available for anything you choose: cash, a bank account, a tax refund, an asset that doesn’t fit another category. If you use part of the homestead, only the unused portion (up to $15,800) rolls into the wildcard. This is why renters often protect more property under the federal list than under many state schemes.

Retirement Accounts

ERISA-qualified plans (401(k), 403(b), pension, profit-sharing, SEP-IRA, SIMPLE IRA): unlimited
Traditional and Roth IRAs, combined: $1,711,975

The IRA cap can be raised by a court if the interests of justice require it. ERISA-qualified plans are excluded from the bankruptcy estate by federal law outside the exemption system, so they stay protected whether you use the federal list or a state list.

Government Benefits

Social Security benefits: unlimited
Unemployment compensation: unlimited
Veterans’ benefits: unlimited
Public assistance: unlimited
Disability or illness benefits: unlimited

Protection covers the right to receive these benefits, money already received, and property traceable to them. A bank account funded entirely by Social Security deposits stays exempt.

Support and Legal Awards

Alimony, child support, or separate maintenance: exempt to the extent reasonably necessary for the support of you and your dependents
Crime victim’s reparation awards: unlimited
Personal bodily injury payments (physical injury component only, not pain and suffering or financial losses): $31,575
Wrongful death benefits received as a dependent of the deceased: reasonably necessary for support
Life insurance proceeds received as a dependent of the insured: reasonably necessary for support
Payments for loss of future earnings: reasonably necessary for support

Doubling the Chart for Joint Filers

When married couples file a joint petition, federal exemptions apply separately to each spouse. Every dollar figure above doubles: $63,150 in homestead equity, $10,050 in vehicle equity, $34,950 in wildcard for a couple that doesn’t own a home, and so on.¹

Two conditions apply. Both spouses must choose the same system: if one spouse elects the federal exemptions, so must the other. And doubling works cleanly only for jointly owned property. If only one spouse’s name is on the car title, only that spouse’s $5,025 exemption applies to it.

Whether You Can Actually Use This Chart

The federal list is not available everywhere. Congress allowed states to opt out and force residents onto a state exemption scheme. Roughly 20 states and the District of Columbia let filers choose between state and federal exemptions; the rest require the state list.¹ You cannot pick some exemptions from the federal list and others from your state’s list.

Which state’s law applies depends on where you’ve been domiciled. You must have lived in the same state for the full 730 days (two years) before filing to use that state’s exemptions. If you moved more recently, the court applies the exemptions of whatever state you lived in for the majority of the 180 days before that 730-day window. If those lookback rules leave you ineligible for any single state’s exemptions, federal law lets you use the federal list by default, even if your current state has opted out.

Caps That Can Override the Homestead Number

Two separate caps can reduce homestead protection below what the standard chart figure suggests.

The first is the 1,215-day cap. If you acquired your home or added equity to it within 1,215 days (about three years and four months) before filing, the maximum protected amount for that interest is $214,000, regardless of how generous a state homestead exemption might otherwise be. This cap applies when you elect state exemptions; it does not reduce the federal homestead figure, which already sits well below $214,000.¹

The second is the fraud and felony cap. If you have been convicted of a felony demonstrating abuse of the bankruptcy system, or if you owe debts arising from securities fraud, RICO violations, or intentional acts causing serious physical injury or death, the homestead exemption is capped at $214,000. A court can reduce the protected homestead value further if you disposed of property within the ten years before filing with intent to cheat creditors.¹

How Equity Is Measured Against the Chart

Every property figure on the chart measures equity, not value. Equity means the property’s value minus what you owe on mortgages, car loans, and other liens against it. A home worth $250,000 with a $230,000 mortgage has $20,000 in equity, fully covered by the $31,575 federal homestead exemption.¹ A car you owe more on than it’s worth has no equity at all, and the $5,025 vehicle exemption isn’t even needed to keep it.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 522 – Exemptions