Case Summary:
The Court denied confirmation of the debtor’s chapter 13 plan because it did not meet the requirements of 11 U.S.C. § 1325(a)(9). That section requires that debtors “file[] all applicable Federal, State, and local tax returns as required by section 1308.” Section 1308 requires that all tax returns due for the four-year period before the petition date must be filed before the meeting of creditors is concluded. The debtor filed required tax returns after the meeting of creditors but before confirmation, and he argued that § 1325(a)(9) should not prevent the Court from confirming the plan. Under the debtor’s reading of the Code, § 1325(a)(9) would mandate only that the relevant tax returns are filed before confirmation. The debtor argued that incorporating § 1308’s timing requirement would render superfluous § 1307(e), which provides for dismissal of cases where debtors do not comply with § 1308. The Court explained that while § 1325(a)(9) and § 1307(e) may sometimes lead to the same outcome, the statutes merely overlap and are not so similar that departure from the plain meaning of § 1329(a)(9) is warranted.
The Court adopted the reasoning of In re Long, 603 B.R. 812 (Bankr. E.D. Wis. 2019), and held that a chapter 13 debtor must file the required tax returns before the deadline in § 1308 as a condition of plan confirmation.
Statute/Rule References:
11 U.S.C. § 1325(a)(9) -- Plan Confirmation - tax returns
11 U.S.C. § 1307(e) -- Conversion or dismissal - tax filings
11 U.S.C. § 1308 -- Filing of prepetition tax returns
Key Term:
Taxes / tax returns