Robin Miller of CBAR reports on a case that could have a dramatic impact on means testing:
Rejecting the “heads on bed” and “IRS dependency” approaches, the court adopted the “economic unit” approach to determining a debtor’s “household size.” In applying this approach, the court adopted rebuttable presumptions that an individual listed as a dependent on the debtor or the debtor’s non-filing spouse’s most recent income tax return was a member of the debtor’s bankruptcy “household,” while an individual not listed as a dependent on the debtor or the debtor’s non-filing spouse’s most recent tax return was not a part of the debtor’s “household.” Moreover, a child who lives with the debtor only part of the time constitutes a fractional member of the debtor’s household. Thus, here, where the debtor had custody of his two children from a prior marriage eight days out of every 14, the two children together amounted to one person for purposes of determining the debtor’s household size.
In re Skiles, 504 B.R. 871 (Bankr. N.D. Ohio, Jan. 9, 2014)