What Debts Can Be Discharged in Bankruptcy and What Can’t

A bankruptcy discharge wipes out most unsecured consumer debt, including credit card balances, medical bills, personal loans, and old utility arrears, but it leaves several categories in place: child support and alimony, most recent income taxes, student loans, debts from fraud or intentional harm, DUI-related injury debts, and criminal fines and restitution. Knowing which debts can be discharged in bankruptcy, and which will follow you out of the case, is the starting point for deciding whether filing is worth it. Once the court grants a discharge, it acts as a permanent injunction that stops creditors from calling, suing, or garnishing wages for any debt the order eliminated.¹

Debts Bankruptcy Usually Wipes Out

In a Chapter 7 case, the court discharges all debts that existed on your filing date unless a specific exception applies.² The debts most people file to escape sit squarely inside that default rule. They share one feature: the creditor holds no collateral, so there is nothing to repossess once your personal liability ends.

Credit card balances, including accumulated interest and late fees.
Medical bills from hospital stays, emergency visits, surgeries, and ongoing treatment.
Personal loans from banks, credit unions, and online lenders.
Past-due utility balances for electricity, gas, water, and similar services.
Amounts owed under broken leases or service contracts that predate your filing.

For a typical consumer filer, these categories make up the overwhelming majority of what gets erased. The legal obligation simply ends, and the creditor has no lawful way to keep collecting.

Debts That Survive No Matter What

Some debts are nondischargeable by category, so no proof, hardship, or repayment plan changes the outcome.³ You will owe these in full when the case closes.

Child Support and Alimony

Domestic support obligations cannot be discharged under any chapter. Federal law treats the financial well-being of children and former spouses as paramount, so any prefiling arrears carry through the case. Wage levies, tax refund seizures, and contempt-of-court proceedings can continue even during and after bankruptcy. Wiping out other debts may free up cash flow to catch up, but the support itself follows you out.

DUI Injury and Death Debts

Debts for death or personal injury caused by operating a motor vehicle, vessel, or aircraft while intoxicated are categorically nondischargeable, including both compensatory and punitive damages.

Criminal Fines and Restitution

Fines, penalties, and forfeitures owed to a government entity are generally nondischargeable when they function as punishment rather than compensation. That covers criminal fines, traffic tickets, and regulatory penalties. Restitution ordered as part of a criminal sentence also survives, so victims still receive their court-ordered payments.

Debts From Fraud or Intentional Harm

Debts obtained by false pretenses, false representations, or actual fraud will stay in place if the creditor objects and proves its case. Two timing rules create a presumption of fraud without the creditor having to prove intent:

Credit card charges for luxury goods or services totaling more than $900 to a single creditor within 90 days of filing.
Cash advances totaling more than $1,250 from a single creditor within 70 days of filing.

Those thresholds took effect on April 1, 2025 and apply through March 31, 2028. The presumption is rebuttable; you can show you genuinely intended to repay, but once the creditor establishes the timing and amount, the burden shifts to you. Debts from embezzlement, theft, and intentional harm to another person or their property are nondischargeable on the same section of the statute.

Debts That Survive Unless You Meet a Test

Two big categories sit in the middle: dischargeable in principle, but only if specific conditions are met.

Income Taxes

Income tax debts can be discharged only when every one of the following is true:⁴

The return was originally due, including extensions, at least three years before you filed.
You actually filed the return at least two years before your bankruptcy filing date.
The IRS or state assessed the tax at least 240 days before you filed.
You did not file a fraudulent return or willfully try to evade the tax.

Miss any one condition and the tax debt survives. Trust-fund taxes — payroll taxes withheld from employee wages but not remitted, and sales taxes collected but not remitted — are never dischargeable, because the money was held on behalf of others.

Student Loans

Federal and private student loans are not automatically discharged. To eliminate them, you must file a separate lawsuit inside your bankruptcy case, called an adversary proceeding, and prove that repayment would impose an “undue hardship” on you and your dependents. Most circuits apply the Brunner test, which requires three showings:

You cannot maintain a minimal standard of living while making payments on current income and expenses.
Your financial situation is likely to persist for a significant portion of the repayment period, often due to permanent disability or long-term inability to earn adequate income.
You have made a good-faith effort to repay, such as using income-driven repayment plans or deferment when eligible.

The Eighth Circuit and some courts in the First Circuit use a broader totality-of-the-circumstances approach that weighs the debtor’s overall financial picture instead of demanding strict proof of each prong.

In November 2022, the Department of Justice and the Department of Education introduced a streamlined process for federal student loans.⁵ Borrowers complete an attestation form tracking the standard hardship factors, and if the answers clearly show undue hardship, a DOJ attorney can stipulate to the facts and recommend discharge without a contested trial.⁶ The adversary proceeding still has to be filed and the court has the last word, but qualifying borrowers can now avoid the expense of full litigation.

Secured Debts: Your Liability Ends, the Lien Doesn’t

Discharge eliminates your personal liability for a debt, but it does not remove a lien attached to your property.⁷ For a mortgage or a car loan, the lender’s security interest survives, so the lender can still foreclose on the home or repossess the car if you stop paying. What the lender loses is the ability to sue you for a deficiency after the property is gone.

In Chapter 7 you generally have three options for each piece of secured property:

Surrender it. Give back the car or let the home go to foreclosure, and any remaining balance is discharged.
Reaffirm the debt. Sign a new agreement keeping you personally liable in exchange for keeping the property.
Redeem the property. For tangible personal property used for personal or household purposes, pay the lender the current value of the collateral in a single lump sum, which may be less than the loan balance.⁸

Reaffirmation deserves careful thought. If you reaffirm a car loan and later fall behind, the lender can repossess and still pursue you for the deficiency, which is exactly the outcome bankruptcy was meant to prevent.

Two Traps People Miss

HOA and Condo Fees That Come Due After Filing

Past-due homeowners association or condominium fees from before your filing are dischargeable. Fees that come due after the filing date are not, as long as you or the trustee still hold an ownership interest in the property.⁴ If you plan to surrender the home, those post-filing charges keep piling up until title actually transfers, and you are on the hook in the meantime.

Divorce Property Settlements in Chapter 7

Child support and alimony are always nondischargeable, but property settlement debts owed to a former spouse are also nondischargeable in Chapter 7. That includes obligations like agreeing to pay a joint credit card or to compensate an ex for their share of a marital asset. Chapter 13 treats these differently.

What Chapter 13 Discharges That Chapter 7 Won’t

Chapter 7 eliminates qualifying debts within a few months, but the list of exceptions is long. Chapter 13 requires a three-to-five-year repayment plan, and the discharge you receive at the end covers a few debts Chapter 7 cannot touch. The Chapter 13 completion discharge in 11 U.S.C. § 1328(a) only incorporates a subset of the § 523(a) exceptions.⁹ Debts that Chapter 13 can reach but Chapter 7 cannot include:

Property settlement debts from divorce under § 523(a)(15).
Debts for intentional damage to property alone. In Chapter 13 the intentional-harm exception is narrower and covers only personal injury or death.
Certain non-tax government fines and penalties under § 523(a)(7).

Both chapters still leave the core categories untouched: domestic support, most taxes, student loans without an undue hardship finding, fraud debts, and DUI injury claims. The broader Chapter 13 discharge is sometimes called a super discharge, though Congress narrowed it significantly in 2005.

When You Get No Discharge At All

There is a difference between specific debts being excepted from discharge and the court refusing to grant any discharge in the first place. Under 11 U.S.C. § 727(a), the court will deny discharge entirely for serious misconduct, including:²

Concealing, destroying, or transferring property within a year before filing, or after filing, with intent to defraud creditors.
Concealing, destroying, or falsifying books and records, unless the failure is justified.
Making a false statement, presenting a false claim, or giving or receiving bribes in connection with the case.
Failing to satisfactorily explain missing property or a shortfall in assets.
Disobeying a lawful court order or refusing to testify after being granted immunity.

If the court denies discharge, you walk out of the case still owing every debt you owed going in. The outcome is uncommon but severe, which is why full honesty with the court and the trustee matters at every step.

Waiting Periods After a Previous Discharge

You can file bankruptcy more than once, but a new discharge is only available after a waiting period measured from filing date to filing date:

Chapter 7 after Chapter 7: eight years.
Chapter 13 after Chapter 7: four years.
Chapter 7 after Chapter 13: six years, unless you paid unsecured creditors in full or made a good-faith effort to pay at least 70 percent of allowed unsecured claims.
Chapter 13 after Chapter 13: two years.

Filing early does not automatically get the case dismissed, and you may still benefit from the automatic stay that halts collection, but you will not receive a discharge at the end.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 U.S.C. 524 – Effect of Discharge
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 U.S.C. 727 – Discharge
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 U.S.C. 523 – Exceptions to Discharge
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 U.S. Code 523 – Exceptions to Discharge
5
U.S. Department of Justice. Student Loan Discharge Guidance – Guidance Text
6
U.S. Department of Justice. Student Loan Guidance
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 U.S. Code 506 – Determination of Secured Status
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 U.S. Code 722 – Redemption
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 U.S. Code 1328 – Discharge