The one-sentence version
Form 107 - the Statement of Financial Affairs (SOFA) - is a 25-question financial history that tells the trustee where your money came from and where it went in the two years before you filed.
Why it matters more than people expect
The schedules show your current snapshot. The SOFA shows the movie of how you got here. It's where trustees find:
- Transfers to relatives that look like asset hiding (clawable as "fraudulent transfers")
- Preferential repayments to insiders (clawable as "preferences")
- Undisclosed lawsuits where you're a plaintiff (the cause of action is an asset)
- Business activity not properly described on Schedule A/B
- Recent income that doesn't match what you put on Schedule I or the Means Test
- Property pledged as collateral for debts you've since "forgotten" about
It's the form most likely to surface trouble. It's also the form most likely to keep you out of trouble - everything disclosed on the SOFA can't be used as evidence of concealment.
What's on the form - the 11 parts
Part 1 - Income
Gross income from all sources for the current calendar year (through filing) and the two prior calendar years. Wages, business, rental, gigs, support received - everything. The trustee compares this to your tax returns.
Part 2 - Payments to creditors
- Payments totaling more than $600 to any single non-insider creditor in the 90 days before filing. (Potential "preferences.")
- Payments of any amount to insiders (relatives, business partners, controlled entities) in the 1 year before filing.
Part 3 - Legal actions, repossessions, foreclosures, and garnishments
- Any lawsuit you've been involved in (as plaintiff or defendant) in the year before filing
- Any property repossessed, foreclosed, or transferred under any kind of forced sale or garnishment
- Setoffs (a bank took money from your account to satisfy a debt you owed them)
Part 4 - Certain gifts and contributions
Gifts over $600 in the year before filing. Charitable contributions over $600 in the year before filing.
Part 5 - Losses
Losses from fire, theft, or gambling in the year before filing.
Part 6 - Payments for help with the bankruptcy
Payments to attorneys, bankruptcy petition preparers, or anyone consulted about debt relief in the year before filing.
Part 7 - Property transferred
Any transfer of property (sale, gift, lien, assignment) within the 2 years before filing (10 years for certain self-settled trusts). Includes giving a relative your old car, transferring real estate to a child, putting an account in joint name, deeding a house to a trust.
Part 8 - Closed accounts
Financial accounts (checking, savings, brokerage) closed, sold, or moved in the year before filing.
Part 9 - Safe deposit boxes
Any safe deposit box you have or had in the year before filing, and who else has access.
Part 10 - Property held for someone else
Any property you hold for someone else's benefit, or that someone else is holding for you.
Part 11 - Business or self-employment
Any business you've operated in the 4 years before filing - sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation, LLC. Includes side hustles. List names, addresses, EINs, and whether the business still exists.
Watch out: The 2-year transfer lookback (Part 7) is the most-litigated part of the SOFA. "Transferring" your house to your son for $1 to "keep it safe" is exactly the kind of move that gets unwound by the trustee under fraudulent-transfer law - sometimes years after the fact. Disclose every transfer; let your attorney (or the trustee at the 341 meeting) sort out whether it's recoverable.
The "insider" definition
Several SOFA questions ask about payments or transfers to insiders. Insiders include:
- Relatives (spouse, parents, children, siblings, in-laws, grandparents, grandchildren)
- Business partners and any business you've owned 20%+ of
- Entities you control
- Officers and directors of any corporation you control
The "year-long lookback for insiders" exists because Congress assumed people are more likely to favor family and business associates when they're heading toward bankruptcy.
Good to know: "Disclosed" doesn't automatically mean "kept." A payment listed in Part 2 of the SOFA may still be clawed back by the trustee as a preference - but at least it isn't fraud. Concealment is the difference between losing the money and losing the discharge entirely.
Common mistakes
- Misremembering gross income from prior years. Pull tax returns.
- Forgetting a small business or LLC you opened years ago - even one with no activity. List it.
- Forgetting payments to mom in the past year. Any insider payment, any amount, gets listed.
- Listing only the lawsuit you remember. Pull docket searches in any state where you've lived recently.
- Forgetting a recent transfer "for safekeeping." Especially common with vehicles transferred into a relative's name.
- Forgetting a garnishment or bank account levy you've experienced.
Related forms
The SOFA cross-references everything: it should match Schedule A/B, Schedule E/F, Schedule I, and the Means Test on Form 122A-1. Discrepancies = questions at the 341 meeting. See the complete forms index.