What Debts Are Not Discharged in Bankruptcy? Taxes, Support, and Fraud

A bankruptcy discharge wipes out most consumer debts, but federal law keeps several categories alive no matter which chapter you file. The debts not discharged in bankruptcy include child support and alimony, most tax obligations, student loans, debts obtained through fraud, debts for intentional injury, DUI-related injury or death claims, criminal fines and restitution, post-filing HOA assessments, and debts you failed to list on your schedules. The list is set primarily by 11 U.S.C. § 523, and Chapter 13 discharges a slightly wider set of debts than Chapter 7.

Child Support, Alimony, and Divorce Debts

Domestic support obligations survive every bankruptcy. Current child support, alimony, and any arrears you have built up cannot be discharged under any chapter.¹ Filing does not stop a support creditor from garnishing wages, intercepting tax refunds, or suspending your driver’s license while the case is pending.²

Divorce decrees often create other financial obligations, such as an agreement that you will pay a joint credit card or take over a car loan. In Chapter 7, these property-settlement debts owed to a spouse, former spouse, or child are non-dischargeable.³ Chapter 13 treats them more generously: property-settlement debts can be discharged when you complete the repayment plan, though support itself still cannot.⁴

Most Tax Debts

Income tax debt can be discharged, but only if it clears three timing tests. All three must be met:

The return was due at least three years before you filed for bankruptcy, including extensions.¹
If the return was filed late, it was filed at least two years before your petition date.
The tax was assessed more than 240 days before you filed. That window is extended by time spent negotiating an offer in compromise or under a stay from a prior bankruptcy.⁵

If you never filed a return, filed a fraudulent one, or willfully attempted to evade the tax, the debt is non-dischargeable regardless of age.

Trust Fund Taxes

Payroll taxes you withheld from employee wages and sales tax you collected from customers are trust fund taxes. Because that money was held for the government rather than earned by the business, it can never be discharged.⁶

Interest and Penalties

Interest and penalties follow the underlying tax. When a tax debt qualifies for discharge, related interest goes with it, and penalties are generally dischargeable if the triggering event occurred more than three years before you filed. Interest and penalties tied to a non-dischargeable tax survive the same way the tax does.⁷

Student Loans

Federal and private student loans are not discharged unless you show that repayment would impose an undue hardship on you and your dependents. That requires a separate lawsuit inside your bankruptcy case, called an adversary proceeding.¹

Most federal courts apply the Brunner test. You must show three things: you cannot maintain a minimal standard of living while repaying, your financial situation is unlikely to improve for a significant portion of the repayment period, and you made good-faith efforts to repay. Some courts use a broader totality-of-the-circumstances approach instead. Either way, the standard has historically been hard to meet.

The DOJ Attestation Process

Since late 2022, the Department of Justice and Department of Education have used a streamlined process for federal student loan hardship claims. You complete an attestation form under penalty of perjury covering income, expenses, assets, and repayment history.⁸ DOJ attorneys then compare your expenses against IRS collection financial standards. Factors that weigh in your favor include being 65 or older, having loans in repayment for at least 10 years, not completing the degree the loans funded, a disability that limits earning capacity, or unemployment for at least five of the past ten years. If the government agrees, it can stipulate to discharge rather than force a trial.

Debts From Fraud or Dishonesty

Money, property, or services obtained through fraud or false representations cannot be discharged. Neither can debts from embezzlement, larceny, or fraud committed while acting as a fiduciary.¹

Two kinds of pre-filing spending trigger an automatic presumption of fraud:

Consumer debts to a single creditor totaling more than $900 for luxury goods or services incurred within 90 days before filing.⁹
Cash advances totaling more than $1,250 from open-end credit plans taken within 70 days before filing.

Those thresholds took effect April 1, 2025, up from $800 and $1,100. You can rebut the presumption, but the burden is on you to show the spending was not fraudulent.

One deadline matters here: a creditor who wants a debt declared non-dischargeable for fraud or intentional injury must file a complaint within 60 days after the first date set for the meeting of creditors. Miss that window and the debt can be discharged by default, even if the underlying conduct would have qualified.¹⁰

Willful and Malicious Injury

Debts for intentional harm to another person or their property survive Chapter 7.³ Carelessness is not enough; the conduct must be deliberate or intentionally harmful. Chapter 13 is narrower: the rule applies only to injury to people, including death. Intentional damage to property alone may be discharged once you finish the plan.¹¹

DUI Injury or Death

Any debt for death or personal injury caused while you were operating a motor vehicle, boat, or aircraft while intoxicated is non-dischargeable in every chapter. Unlike fraud claims, this one is automatic. The creditor does not need to file a separate complaint to preserve it.¹

Criminal Fines and Restitution

Fines, penalties, and forfeitures payable to a government entity survive discharge when they are punitive rather than compensation for a loss. Criminal fines, traffic tickets, and regulatory sanctions fall here. Restitution ordered as part of a federal criminal sentence is separately protected.

The distinction matters for civil judgments. If a court orders you to pay actual damages to compensate a private party’s financial loss, that debt is not automatically non-dischargeable under this provision. The government-fine exception reaches penalties meant to punish or deter, not payments meant to make someone whole.

Post-Filing HOA and Condo Assessments

If you own a condo, co-op, or a home in a homeowners association, assessments that come due after you file are non-dischargeable for as long as you or the bankruptcy trustee still hold an ownership interest.³ This catches owners who stop paying dues after filing but keep title or keep living in the unit. Dues that were already past due when you filed are treated as ordinary unsecured debt and can be discharged. This exception does not apply in Chapter 13, so post-petition HOA charges can be wiped out through a completed plan.

Debts You Forget to List

You must list every creditor on your bankruptcy schedules. A creditor left off the list and not given timely notice may keep its right to collect after discharge, because the omission cost it the chance to participate or, for fraud claims, to file a timely objection.¹

The No-Asset Exception

Many Chapter 7 filings are no-asset cases with nothing to distribute. Most courts take a practical view: if the omission was honest and the creditor would not have been paid anyway, the debt is still treated as discharged. The question is whether the creditor was actually harmed.

Reopening a Closed Case

If you discover an omitted creditor after your case has closed, you can move to reopen it. There is no statute of limitations on that motion.¹² The court usually charges a filing fee and can deny the motion if reopening would serve no purpose, such as when the debt would clearly be discharged under the no-asset rule without any court action.

What Chapter 13 Discharges That Chapter 7 Does Not

Completing a Chapter 13 plan clears a few categories that would survive Chapter 7:¹³

Debts for willful damage to another person’s property (but not injury to a person).
Property-settlement debts from a divorce, as opposed to support.
Debts you incurred to pay a non-dischargeable tax, such as a loan or credit card used to cover the IRS.
Post-petition HOA assessments.

Everything else on this page stays non-dischargeable in Chapter 13 too: support, tax debts that fail the timing rules, student loans without an undue hardship finding, fraud-related debts, DUI injury and death claims, and criminal restitution.¹¹

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 523 – Exceptions to Discharge
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 362 – Automatic Stay
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 523 – Exceptions to Discharge
4
United States Courts. Discharge in Bankruptcy – Bankruptcy Basics
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 507 – Priorities
6
Internal Revenue Service. Bankruptcy Frequently Asked Questions
7
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 908 – Bankruptcy Tax Guide
8
U.S. Department of Justice. Student Loan Attestation Fillable Form
9
Federal Register. Adjustment of Certain Dollar Amounts Applicable to Bankruptcy Cases
10
Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure – Rule 4007
11
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 1328 – Discharge
12
Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure – Rule 5010
13
United States Courts. Chapter 13 – Bankruptcy Basics