How to Pass the Chapter 7 Means Test in Washington State

To pass the Chapter 7 means test in Washington, your annualized household income has to fall below the state median for your household size, or, if it doesn’t, your allowed monthly expenses have to leave too little disposable income to make a meaningful dent in what you owe. For cases filed on or after April 1, 2026, that median starts at $88,585 for a single-person household and rises with each additional member. Most Washington filers clear the first hurdle and never touch the second. Those who don’t still have several ways through.

Washington Median Income Thresholds

The test begins by averaging your gross monthly income over the six full calendar months before you file, then multiplying by twelve. That annualized figure gets compared to the Census Bureau median for a Washington household your size. For cases filed on or after April 1, 2026:

1 earner: $88,585
2 people: $107,100
3 people: $131,737
4 people: $156,567
Each additional person: add $11,100

Fall below the applicable figure and you pass. No further calculations required.¹ These numbers update periodically, and the U.S. Trustee Program specifies which set applies to which filing dates.²

What Counts as Income

“Current monthly income” is broader than a paycheck. It includes wages, self-employment earnings, rental income, unemployment benefits, and regular financial contributions from anyone paying your household expenses. Social Security benefits are excluded, and so are certain disability-related payments to veterans and their survivors.³

Every dollar during the six-month lookback matters. A one-time bonus, a freelance payment, or an unusually heavy overtime stretch still inflates your average. If a temporary income spike is what’s pushing you over the median, waiting a few months so that period rolls out of the window can change the result. This is why timing your filing date matters as much as the numbers themselves.

Income data goes on Official Form 122A-1.⁴ To fill it in accurately, you’ll want six months of pay stubs, self-employment profit and loss statements if you run a business, your most recent federal tax return, and records of any support or contribution income.

Marital Adjustment When Only One Spouse Files

Married filers get a wrinkle. If you file alone, the means test still counts both spouses’ income in the initial household total, which can push you over the median when the non-filing spouse earns well. The marital adjustment deduction offsets this by letting you subtract portions of the non-filing spouse’s income that go to their own separate obligations rather than shared household costs.

Qualifying items include the non-filing spouse’s separate credit card payments, student loans, or support obligations like alimony or child support owed to someone from a prior relationship. Bring documentation: bank statements, account records, or payment receipts. Applied correctly, the adjustment can drop household income back under the median and end the analysis at step one.

The Disposable Income Calculation

If your annualized income exceeds Washington’s median, you move to Official Form 122A-2 and calculate monthly disposable income. Rather than using actual spending across the board, the form relies on IRS National and Local Standards for most categories.⁵

National Standards cover food, clothing, housekeeping supplies, personal care, and out-of-pocket health care. You get a fixed monthly allowance based on household size without having to justify your actual spending. Local Standards cover housing, utilities, and transportation, and they vary by county. The Washington housing and utilities allowance can differ significantly between King County and a rural eastern county, so pulling the right figure for your address matters.⁶

Transportation splits in two: a nationwide ownership allowance for loan or lease payments, and a regional operating cost allowance for insurance, fuel, and maintenance. Own your car outright with no payment? You only get the operating cost portion.

A separate category called “Other Necessary Expenses” uses your actual spending rather than a preset figure. This covers mandatory payroll deductions, childcare, health insurance premiums, term life insurance, and charitable contributions to qualified organizations.⁷

On top of the standard deductions, you can subtract average monthly payments on secured debts like mortgages and car loans, plus priority obligations such as child support or past-due taxes. If you have a dependent child under 18 in private or public school, you may deduct up to $2,575 per year per child for education-related expenses, provided you can document why those costs are reasonable and necessary. Expenses for caring for an elderly, chronically ill, or disabled household member who is your dependent are also deductible if those costs aren’t compensated by insurance or another program.

The Numbers That Decide It

Subtract allowable expenses from current monthly income, multiply the result by 60 (five years of payments), and compare against two thresholds.

If your 60-month disposable income is less than $10,275, no presumption of abuse arises and you qualify for Chapter 7. If it hits $17,150 or more, abuse is presumed. Between those two numbers, the result depends on whether your 60-month disposable income equals or exceeds 25 percent of your total nonpriority unsecured debts. If it does, abuse is presumed; if not, you pass.⁷

The middle zone tends to help filers with large unsecured balances. Someone with $150,000 in credit card and medical debt would need 60-month disposable income of at least $37,500 to trigger the 25-percent test, well above the $17,150 cap. In practice, the middle zone mostly matters for filers with relatively small unsecured balances.

Who Skips the Means Test Entirely

Some filers avoid the whole calculation by filing Form 122A-1Supp, the Statement of Exemption from Presumption of Abuse.⁸ Three categories qualify:

Filers whose debts are primarily non-consumer. If more than half your total debt came from business ventures rather than personal or household spending, the means test doesn’t apply. This is the most common exemption and the one that lets struggling Washington business owners file Chapter 7 regardless of income.
Disabled veterans whose debts were incurred primarily while on active duty or performing homeland defense activity. The court cannot dismiss or convert the case based on the means test.⁷
National Guard and Reserve members called to active duty or performing homeland defense activity for at least 90 days after September 11, 2001. The exemption runs during that service and for 540 days after it ends.⁹

One trap on the disabled veteran exemption: the debts must have been incurred primarily during the qualifying service period. A veteran who became disabled on deployment but accumulated most of their debt years later in civilian life wouldn’t qualify under this specific provision, though they might still pass the standard means test.

If the Numbers Say You Fail

A failed means test creates a presumption of abuse, not a final ruling. Several paths remain.

Rebut with special circumstances. The Bankruptcy Code lets you demonstrate circumstances that justify expenses or income adjustments the standard deductions don’t capture. The statute names a serious medical condition and a call to active military duty as examples, but the category isn’t limited to those.⁷ You itemize each additional expense, provide supporting documentation, explain in detail why the expense is necessary with no reasonable alternative, and swear to the accuracy under oath. It only works if the recalculated 60-month disposable income drops below the applicable threshold.

Wait and refile. Because the test uses a six-month average, a temporary income spike from overtime, a bonus, or a short-term contract can push you over. Letting those months roll out of the lookback window may change the outcome entirely.

Adjust filing timing. If you lost a job two months ago but the prior four higher-earning months still dominate the average, filing later produces a more accurate picture of your current finances.

Convert to Chapter 13. Instead of liquidation, you enter a three-to-five-year repayment plan based on your disposable income. Chapter 13 has no income ceiling, so anyone who fails the means test can use it. You keep your property but commit future earnings to creditors.

The U.S. Trustee’s office can also independently review a filing for abuse even when the numbers technically pass, and some filers who technically fail persuade the court through special circumstances that Chapter 7 is still appropriate. The means test is the starting point of the analysis, not always the last word.

1
U.S. Trustee Program/Dept. of Justice. Census Bureau Median Family Income By Family Size
2
United States Department of Justice. Means Testing
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 101 – Definitions
4
United States Courts. Means Test Forms
5
United States Courts. Official Form 122A-2 Chapter 7 Means Test Calculation
6
Internal Revenue Service. Washington – Local Standards Housing and Utilities
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 707 – Dismissal of a Case or Conversion
8
United States Courts. Official Form 122A-1Supp – Statement of Exemption from Presumption of Abuse Under 11 USC 707(b)(2)
9
U.S. Government Publishing Office. National Guard and Reservists Debt Relief Act of 2008