What Cannot Be Discharged in Chapter 7 Bankruptcy?

A Chapter 7 discharge wipes out most unsecured consumer debt, but the list of what cannot be discharged in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy is longer than most people expect. Child support and alimony survive. So do recent income taxes, most student loans, debts you incurred through fraud or intentional harm, DUI injury judgments, government fines, debts you forgot to list on your petition, and any secured loan where you want to keep the collateral. Everything below explains which debts stay with you and why.

Child Support, Alimony, and Other Divorce Debts

Domestic support obligations are non-dischargeable under every chapter of bankruptcy, not just Chapter 7. Past-due child support and alimony follow you out of the case in full, and the recipient can resume collection the day your case closes.¹

Other financial obligations from a divorce also survive, and this catches people off guard. If your divorce decree or separation agreement made you responsible for a joint credit card, an equalizing payment, or any other debt owed to a former spouse or child, Chapter 7 cannot shift it back.¹ The obligation stays yours even though it is not technically support.

Recent and Dishonest Tax Debts

Some older income tax debts can be discharged, but only if they clear a set of timing tests. A tax debt survives your bankruptcy if it fails any one of these:

The return was originally due (including extensions) within three years before you filed your petition.²
The IRS assessed the tax within 240 days before your filing date. That clock pauses if you had a pending offer in compromise or a collection stay from a prior bankruptcy during the window.²
You filed the return late and it reached the IRS less than two years before your petition.¹

Two categories of tax debt can never be discharged regardless of age: taxes tied to a fraudulent return and taxes you tried to evade. If you never filed a required return at all, that debt also stays.¹ Only honest, timely-filed income tax debts old enough to clear every timing hurdle have any shot at discharge.

Student Loans

Both federal and private student loans are presumed non-dischargeable. The only way out is proving that repayment would impose an “undue hardship” on you and your dependents.¹ The statute reaches beyond tuition loans to educational benefit overpayments and obligations to repay scholarships or stipends.

To pursue an undue hardship discharge, you file a separate lawsuit inside your bankruptcy case called an adversary proceeding. Most courts require you to show three things: you cannot maintain a minimal standard of living while making payments, your financial situation is likely to persist for a significant portion of the repayment period, and you have made good-faith efforts to repay.³ The bar is high but not impossible, and the process has become more predictable for federal borrowers.

The Streamlined Federal Process

In November 2022, the Department of Justice and the Department of Education launched a standardized process for evaluating undue hardship claims on federal student loans. Borrowers complete an attestation form describing their financial situation, and DOJ attorneys apply consistent criteria to decide whether the government should agree to a full or partial discharge instead of contesting it.⁴ The attestation form was most recently updated in May 2025. This process applies only to federal loans. Private lenders can still contest discharge as aggressively as they choose.

Debts from Fraud, Theft, and Intentional Harm

Bankruptcy is not designed to shield you from the financial consequences of dishonest or deliberately harmful conduct. Several categories survive Chapter 7:

Money, property, or services obtained by fraud or misrepresentation, such as lying on a credit application or falsifying your finances to get a loan.¹
Debts from breach of fiduciary duty, embezzlement, and larceny.¹
Debts for willful and malicious injury to another person or their property. Mere negligence, even gross negligence, does not meet this standard.¹
Any debt for death or personal injury caused by operating a vehicle, boat, or aircraft while legally intoxicated.¹

For fraud-based debts, the creditor has to take action. The debt is not automatically excluded. The creditor must file a complaint in the bankruptcy court and ask for a ruling that the debt is non-dischargeable. If the creditor misses the deadline or never files, the debt may be discharged even if fraud was involved.¹

Luxury Purchases and Cash Advances Right Before Filing

Running up credit cards right before filing triggers a special presumption of fraud. Under the thresholds that took effect April 1, 2025 and remain in place through March 31, 2028, two categories of pre-filing spending are presumed non-dischargeable:

More than $900 in luxury goods or services charged to a single creditor within 90 days before filing.¹
More than $1,250 in total cash advances from a single creditor within 70 days before filing.¹

“Presumed non-dischargeable” shifts the burden to you. You would have to prove the spending was not fraudulent. The statute carves out goods and services reasonably necessary for your support or a dependent’s, so groceries, car repairs needed for work, and medical copays typically do not count as luxury spending even inside the 90-day window.¹ Once bankruptcy is a realistic possibility, stop using credit cards.

Government Fines, Penalties, and Criminal Restitution

Criminal fines, court-ordered restitution, and penalties owed to a government entity survive Chapter 7 as long as they are punitive rather than compensatory. The statute targets fines that are “not compensation for actual pecuniary loss” — money you owe as punishment, not to reimburse the government for out-of-pocket costs.¹ Some tax penalties are an exception: if they relate to an older tax or a transaction more than three years before filing, they may be dischargeable.

Debts You Did Not List on Your Petition

When you file Chapter 7, you have to list every creditor you owe. If you leave one off and that creditor did not otherwise learn about your case in time to file a claim, the debt is not discharged.¹ The omitted creditor never got a chance to participate, so the law treats the bankruptcy as if it never happened for that particular debt. List every obligation, no matter how small or uncertain. Reopening a case later to add a missed creditor is possible but adds cost and delay.

Secured Debts: The Personal Liability Goes, the Lien Stays

Secured debts work differently from everything above. Your personal liability on the loan can be discharged, meaning the creditor cannot sue you or send you to collections. But the creditor’s lien on the collateral survives the bankruptcy.⁵

A mortgage lender cannot chase you personally for a deficiency after Chapter 7, but it can still foreclose if you stop paying. A car lender loses the right to collect from you personally but keeps the right to repossess the vehicle. If you want to keep the property, you have two formal options, plus one informal one.

Reaffirmation

A reaffirmation agreement is a new contract where you voluntarily stay personally liable for the debt in exchange for keeping the property on its original payment terms. You must sign the agreement before your discharge is granted, and you have 60 days after it is filed with the court to change your mind and rescind it.⁶ If you were not represented by an attorney during the negotiations, the court must separately approve the agreement as being in your best interest and not imposing undue hardship.

Think carefully before reaffirming. You are giving up the protection of the discharge for that specific debt. If you fall behind later, the creditor can repossess the property and sue you for any remaining balance, which is the exact scenario bankruptcy was supposed to prevent.

Redemption

Redemption lets you keep personal property by paying the creditor the item’s current fair market value in a single lump sum, even if you owe more than the item is worth. It is available only for tangible personal property used for personal or household purposes, such as a car, furniture, or appliances, and only when the underlying debt is a dischargeable consumer debt.⁷ Redemption does not apply to real estate. Because the payment has to be made all at once, it usually only works when you can pull funds from family, savings, or a specialized redemption lender.

Doing Nothing (Ride-Through)

If you neither reaffirm nor redeem, your personal liability is discharged but the lien stays. Many people continue making payments informally, and most lenders accept this because monthly payments beat repossessing a depreciating asset. The trade-off is that you have no contractual relationship with the lender anymore, so they are not obligated to send statements, report your payments to credit bureaus, or offer workout options if you fall behind.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 523 – Exceptions to Discharge
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 507 – Priorities
3
Federal Student Aid. Undue Hardship Discharge of Title IV Loans in Bankruptcy Adversary Proceedings
4
Department of Justice. Student Loan Guidance
5
United States Courts. Discharge in Bankruptcy – Bankruptcy Basics
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 524 – Effect of Discharge
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 722 – Redemption