Chapter 13 Case-Opening and Plan Assembly Worksheet - Not for Filing

CHAPTER 13 CASE-OPENING AND PLAN ASSEMBLY WORKSHEET

TEXAS — NOT FOR FILING

STOP: This file is not a petition, plan, pleading, declaration, or court-approved form. Do not sign, serve, or file it. It is source control for assembling the current Official Forms and the mandatory form and procedures of the selected Texas bankruptcy district.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. District and Venue Gate
2. Eligibility Gate
3. Official Filing Set
4. Federal Timing Control
5. Plan Source Control
6. Stay, Default, and Discharge Warnings
7. Attorney Verification Checklist
8. Procedural Matters This Worksheet Does Not Decide
9. Official Sources

1. DISTRICT AND VENUE GATE

1.1 Select exactly one district and division

☐ Northern District of Texas — division: [________________]

☐ Southern District of Texas — division: [________________]

☐ Eastern District of Texas — division: [________________]

☐ Western District of Texas — division: [________________]

1.2 Venue worksheet — 28 U.S.C. § 1408

For the 180 days before the proposed petition date, record each location and the number of days:

Selected venue and factual basis: [________________________________]. Do not state that venue is proper until counsel verifies the statutory test, division assignment, and any local standing order.

2. ELIGIBILITY GATE

2.1 Individual with regular income

Debtor 1 is an individual with regular income: ☐ Yes ☐ No ☐ Counsel review required

Debtor 2, if joint: ☐ Not applicable ☐ Individual with regular income ☐ Counsel review required

An entity is not made eligible for Chapter 13 by using this worksheet.

2.2 Debt limits for a case commenced on or after April 1, 2025

Under adjusted 11 U.S.C. § 109(e), the debtor or eligible spouses must owe on the petition date:

• noncontingent, liquidated unsecured debts of less than $526,700; and
• noncontingent, liquidated secured debts of less than $1,580,125.

Do not mechanically classify a disputed, undersecured, contingent, unliquidated, guaranty, tax, or litigation claim. Recalculate if the petition date or governing adjustment changes.

Legislative watch as of August 25, 2026: S. 3977 passed the Senate on August 3 and was held at the House desk on August 10; H.R. 7730 was ordered reported, as amended, on March 26. Congress.gov did not show either proposal as enacted this session. Their proposed $2,750,000 aggregate approach is not current law; use the bifurcated adjusted limits above unless an enacted law changes § 109(e).

2.3 Other eligibility screens

• ☐ Credit counseling completed during the 180-day prepetition period under § 109(h)(1), or counsel has documented a specific § 109(h)(2), (3), or (4) route.
• ☐ Prior cases and dismissals screened under § 109(g).
• ☐ Prior discharges screened under § 1328(f).
• ☐ Stockbroker/commodity-broker and individual-versus-entity issues screened under § 109(e).
• ☐ Chapter choice and good-faith issues reviewed; this worksheet makes no eligibility warranty.

3. OFFICIAL FILING SET

3.1 Commencement

A voluntary case is commenced under 11 U.S.C. § 301 by filing the petition. This worksheet does not commence a case and must not be attached as a petition or plan.

3.2 Petition-date control

• ☐ Current Official Form 101 — Voluntary Petition for Individuals Filing for Bankruptcy.
• ☐ Creditor name-and-address list required with the petition by Rule 1007(a), in the selected court's current matrix format.
• ☐ Official Form 121 — Statement About Your Social Security Numbers, submitted using the court's restricted-access procedure.
• ☐ Filing fee, current installment application if needed, and any district-specific case-opening documents.
• ☐ Current electronic-filing declaration required by the selected district, if counsel files electronically.

3.3 Documents ordinarily filed with the petition or within 14 days

Retrieve the current Official Forms; do not copy fields from this worksheet:

• ☐ Schedules 106A/B through 106J, Summary 106Sum, and Declaration 106Dec.
• ☐ Official Form 107 — Statement of Financial Affairs.
• ☐ Official Forms 122C-1 and, if applicable, 122C-2.
• ☐ Payment advices or other employer-payment evidence for the 60-day prepetition period, redacted as Rule 1007(b)(1)(E) requires, or the district's permitted declaration.
• ☐ Credit-counseling statement and certificate/repayment plan or the exact exception papers required by Rule 1007(b)(3) and (c)(3).
• ☐ Schedules of executory contracts, secured claims, priority claims, co-debtors, current income, and expenditures through the applicable Official Forms.

Rule 1007(c) generally supplies a 14-day deadline for the listed schedules and statements, subject to its exceptions and a court-granted extension. It does not make this worksheet a substitute form.

3.4 Chapter 13 plan

Rule 3015(b) requires the plan with the petition or within 14 days after filing, with an extension only for cause and on notice as ordered. Rule 3015(c) requires Official Form 113 unless the court adopted a local form under Rule 3015.1. Each Texas district listed below uses its own current plan source; retrieve it again on the filing date.

4. FEDERAL TIMING CONTROL

Local rules, trustee procedures, court orders, repeat-filer stay motions, wage orders, and judge-specific procedures may create other deadlines. Do not infer a cure period from this worksheet.

5. PLAN SOURCE CONTROL

5.1 Mandatory district plan source

Page dates do not guarantee that a downloaded copy remains current. Recheck the court's forms, local rules, standing orders, electronic-filing procedures, division, judge, and trustee immediately before filing.

5.2 Plan drafting controls

• Use only the selected district's current plan and designated nonstandard-provision section.
• Derive term and commitment-period treatment from §§ 1322(d) and 1325(b), current Official Forms 122C-1/122C-2, and the local plan; never exceed the statutory five-year ceiling.
• Derive proposed payments from evidence-backed income, expenses, secured/priority treatment, trustee percentage, attorney-fee treatment, and feasibility—not from the deleted homemade waterfall.
• Use the local plan's vesting language and § 1327; do not select vesting in this worksheet.
• Treat claims, valuation, lien avoidance, surrender, cure, direct payment, adequate protection, executory contracts, domestic support obligations, and tax claims exactly as the current local plan and governing procedure require.

6. STAY, DEFAULT, AND DISCHARGE WARNINGS

6.1 Stays are statutory, not elected

• Section 362 applies by operation of law when its conditions are met, subject to its exceptions, termination provisions, repeat-filer rules, and court orders.
• Section 1301 concerns collection of a consumer debt from an individual co-debtor and contains stated exceptions and relief provisions. It is not a blanket stay for every guarantor or business debt.
• Screen all cases filed or dismissed during the prior year for § 362(c)(3) and (4) issues and use the selected district's current motion procedure when relief is needed.

6.2 No invented default or cure period

The deleted 30-day payment default, 21-day covenant notice, and universal 14-day cure were not supplied by the Code. Default, dismissal, conversion, stay relief, payment changes, and cure depend on § 1307, § 1329, the confirmed plan, local rules, trustee practice, a motion, notice, hearing requirements, and court orders.

6.3 No automatic fee treatment or liability cap

• A creditor's or trustee's enforcement fees are not automatically administrative expenses merely because a debtor signs language saying so. Derive compensation and claim treatment from the Code, Rules, local plan, fee procedures, contract/nonbankruptcy law, and court allowance.
• Plan payments do not cap the debtor's underlying liability. Confirmation binds as § 1327 provides, while discharge under § 1328 has conditions and exceptions; dismissal, conversion, nondischargeability, long-term debts, and postpetition obligations require separate analysis.

6.4 Income interruption

There is no force-majeure suspension of a confirmed plan. Counsel must evaluate a motion to modify under § 1329, hardship discharge under § 1328(b), conversion, dismissal, insurance, and local procedures on the actual facts.

7. ATTORNEY VERIFICATION CHECKLIST

• ☐ Correct district, division, venue facts, judge procedures, and standing trustee.
• ☐ Current Official Forms, local plan, local rules, standing orders, filing fee, matrix format, and electronic-signature procedure downloaded on filing date.
• ☐ § 109(e) debt classification and April 1, 2025 adjusted limits checked; later adjustment screened.
• ☐ Credit counseling, prior cases, prior discharges, repeat-filer stay, and eligibility reviewed.
• ☐ Texas-versus-federal exemption election and all homestead/nonbankruptcy-law issues separately researched.
• ☐ Foreclosure, repossession, eviction, garnishment, setoff, domestic support, tax, student-loan, and co-debtor facts mapped to stay scope and exceptions.
• ☐ Complete assets, transfers, claims, litigation, leases, insider matters, income, expenses, tax returns, pay advices, and business records collected.
• ☐ Plan feasibility, liquidation test, disposable income, applicable commitment period, secured treatment, priority claims, trustee percentage, and attorney fees calculated using current authority.
• ☐ Every debtor reviewed the actual filing set before signing the court-required declarations.

8. PROCEDURAL MATTERS THIS WORKSHEET DOES NOT DECIDE

This worksheet does not select an exclusive forum, bar arbitration, waive a jury right, consent to final adjudication by a bankruptcy judge, create an injunction, or resolve constitutional or statutory adjudicatory authority. Those questions depend on the claim, referral and withdrawal statutes, Rules, consent, controlling precedent, and court orders.

8.1 No contract boilerplate

This file contains no severability, integration, assignment, successor, counterpart, or electronic-signature term. Only the actual Official Forms, local forms, docketed papers, confirmed plan, Rules, and court orders control the case.

9. OFFICIAL SOURCES

Federal

• 11 U.S.C. § 109 — eligibility.
• 2025 adjusted bankruptcy dollar amounts, 90 Fed. Reg. 8941.
• 11 U.S.C. Chapter 13 — §§ 1301 to 1330.
• 28 U.S.C. § 1408 — venue.
• Current Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure (page states Rules and Official Forms last amended in 2025).
• Official Bankruptcy Forms, including Official Form 101 and Form 113 where a local plan has not replaced Form 113.
• S. 3977 — Bankruptcy Threshold Adjustment Act of 2026 (pending legislative watch; not treated here as enacted).
• H.R. 7730 — Bankruptcy Threshold Adjustment Act of 2026 (pending legislative watch; not treated here as enacted).

Texas district form pages

• Northern District of Texas — BTXN222.
• Southern District of Texas — Bankruptcy Forms & Filing Fees.
• Eastern District of Texas — Local Form 3015-a.
• Western District of Texas — Official Forms.

No signature block is provided. Sign only the current court-required forms after complete review. Never sign or file this worksheet under penalty of perjury.