Case Summary:
After the chapter 13 trustee held and concluded the meeting of creditors, it came to light that the debtor had not filed tax returns for two taxable periods preceding the petition date, as required by 11 U.S.C. § 1308(a).  In an effort to remedy his non-compliance, the debtor filed a motion to reconvene the meeting of creditors.  The court rejected the debtor’s argument that it had the power to reopen the meeting of creditors pursuant to 11 U.S.C. § 105(a).  Noting that the Supreme Court in Law v. Siegel, 571 U.S. 415, 421 (2014), held that courts cannot use § 105(a) to “override explicit mandates of other sections of the Bankruptcy Code,” the bankruptcy court determined that the relief requested by the debtor would override the explicit mandates in § 1308(b).  Under § 1308, if a debtor has not filed the required tax returns, then the mechanism for the debtor to obtain more time to file the returns is to ask the trustee to hold open the meeting or to seek relief from the court before the meeting is concluded.  If debtors could simply ask the court to reopen the meeting of creditors under § 105(a), then § 1308(b) would be superfluous.  Moreover, the bankruptcy court noted that 11 U.S.C. § 1307(e) – which requires dismissal or conversion of a case when a debtor fails to comply with § 1308(a) – would likewise be rendered inoperative if a debtor could avoid dismissal by filing the missing tax returns and seeking to reopen the meeting of creditors.  Accordingly, the debtor’s motion to reconvene the meeting of creditors was denied.