The documents behind the forms

The forms ask for numbers. The numbers come from paper.

Nobody fills out bankruptcy forms from memory. Every line asks for an amount, a date, or an address, and each one traces back to a record you already have or can request. Here's each kind of record, the form it feeds, and how far back that form looks.

The time periods below are printed on the official forms and in the Bankruptcy Code, as of October 2026.

Income

• Pay stubs from the last 60 days. The law requires copies of every pay stub received in the 60 days before filing. Some courts want them filed, and others have them sent to the trustee.
• Income for the last six months. The Means Test forms (122A-1 for Chapter 7, 122C-1 for Chapter 13) average all income from the six full calendar months before the filing month.
• Current monthly income. Schedule I asks what's coming in now: wages, benefits, support, and anything else regular.
• Self-employment records. Business income goes on the same forms, with a statement of what the business took in and what it spent.

Tax returns

A copy of your most recent federal tax return is due to the trustee at least seven days before the 341 meeting. When it doesn't arrive, the law tells the court to dismiss the case unless the reason was outside the filer's control.

The Statement of Financial Affairs (Form 107) also asks for total income for this year and the two calendar years before it, and tax returns are where most people get those figures. Chapter 13 adds its own rule: the returns for the four tax years before filing have to be on file with the IRS.

Bank and account statements

Schedule A/B asks for the balance of every account on the day the case is filed: checking, savings, payment apps, retirement, brokerage. Trustees ask for statements to back those balances up. How many months they want is up to each trustee, and it ranges from the statement covering the filing date to six months or more.

Debts

Every debt goes on a schedule: Schedule D for debts secured by property, Schedule E/F for everything else. Each entry carries the creditor's name, mailing address, the amount, and roughly when the debt started.

• A credit report. All three bureaus provide free reports through AnnualCreditReport.com. A report lists most lenders and collectors with their addresses.
• What a credit report misses. Medical bills that haven't gone to collections, payday loans, money owed to family or friends, unpaid rent, and utility balances often aren't on it.
• Bills, collection letters, and court papers. These carry the current address for each creditor, and lawsuits have case numbers the forms ask for.

The same names and addresses become the creditor matrix.

Property

• Home: the deed, the latest mortgage statement, and something that supports the value.
• Vehicles: the title or registration, the loan statement, and the mileage.
• Retirement and insurance: current statements for retirement accounts and any life insurance with cash value.
• Leases and contracts: an apartment lease, a car lease, a phone contract. These go on Schedule G.

Schedule A/B asks for what each thing is worth today, meaning what it would sell for in its current condition. It doesn't ask what it cost.

The last few years

Form 107 looks backward, and each question has its own window:

• 90 days: payments totaling $600 or more to any one creditor, for filers whose debts are mainly consumer debts.
• 1 year: payments to relatives or other insiders, lawsuits, repossessions, foreclosures, garnishments, losses from theft or fire, and accounts that were closed.
• 2 years: property sold or transferred, and gifts worth more than $600 to one person or charity.
• 3 years: every address you've lived at.
• 4 years: any business you owned or were connected to.

Monthly expenses

Schedule J is a household budget: rent or mortgage, utilities, food, insurance, transportation, childcare, medical costs. Bank statements and bills are the usual source for those numbers.

Identification and certificates

• Photo ID and proof of your Social Security number. The trustee checks both at the 341 meeting.
• The credit counseling certificate, filed with the petition.
• The debtor education certificate, filed after the second course.

For the order all of this happens in, see The filing process, step by step.