The six-month look-back, the statutory exclusions for Social Security, victim payments, and certain veterans benefits, and the threshold that routes a debtor to Form 122A-2 or out of the means test entirely.
Official Form 122A-1, Statement of Your Current Monthly Income, is the entry point of the Chapter 7 means test. It computes current monthly income (CMI) as defined at 11 U.S.C. Section 101(10A), annualizes it, compares it to the applicable state median family income for the debtor's household size, and produces a binary routing decision: a debtor at or below the median completes Form 122A-1 only and need not perform the deduction calculation; a debtor above the median must continue to Form 122A-2.
The form is mechanical in design. Each line corresponds to a category of receipts during the six-month look-back. The arithmetic is averaging, multiplication by twelve, and comparison to a published table. The contests, when they arise, are over classification of receipts and over household size, not over the arithmetic itself.
Section 101(10A)(A)(i) defines CMI as the average monthly income received by the debtor during the six-month period ending on the last day of the calendar month immediately preceding the petition date. The look-back period is exclusive of the petition month. A debtor filing on April 15 calculates CMI from October 1 through March 31; a debtor filing on April 1 calculates from October 1 through March 31 as well, because the calendar-month rule rounds back regardless of the day within the petition month.
The period is fixed in number (six calendar months) and in endpoint (the month immediately preceding petition). It does not adjust for unusual circumstances during the look-back. A debtor who received a one-time severance payment in November still includes one-sixth of that payment in CMI for an April filing. A debtor whose income terminated entirely in January still averages the prior receipts. This rigidity is a feature, not a defect, of the statutory design: Congress chose a backward-looking mechanical metric to prevent strategic timing of filings.
Where the rigidity produces unjust outcomes for above-median debtors, the relief valve is at the deduction stage (Form 122A-2 special circumstances) or at the totality-of-circumstances inquiry under Section 707(b)(3). The look-back itself does not bend.
Form 122A-1 enumerates eight categories of receipts in lines 2 through 9. Each line asks for the total dollar amount received during the six-month look-back, divided by six to produce a monthly average.
Section 101(10A)(B) excludes four categories of receipts from CMI, regardless of amount or frequency. The form captures these as a deduction line, but the substance is exclusion at the statutory level.
Social Security Act benefits. All benefits received under the Social Security Act are excluded. This covers Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) benefits, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), and Social Security retirement benefits. The exclusion is categorical and does not depend on the debtor's age or disability status. A retired debtor whose only income is Social Security has CMI of zero for means-test purposes, regardless of the actual dollar amount of benefits.
The Social Security exclusion has produced some of the most extensively litigated means-test interpretive disputes. The exclusion's reach extends to all benefits paid under the Social Security Act, which means SSI and Title II benefits are both out; however, private long-term disability benefits and employer-sponsored pension benefits are not Social Security Act benefits and remain in CMI. The form does not invite the debtor to identify the source program, but the underlying classification matters: misidentifying a private disability benefit as a Social Security benefit is a common error that the trustee will flag.
Payments to victims of war crimes or crimes against humanity. Reparations and similar payments to victims are excluded. The category is narrow but absolute.
Payments to victims of international or domestic terrorism. Compensation paid on account of victim status is excluded. The exclusion does not extend to insurance proceeds or to economic-loss recoveries through general tort litigation; it is limited to payments made on account of the victim's status as such.
Earned Income Credit and certain veterans benefits. Earned Income Credit refunds received are not CMI. Veterans benefits paid for a service-connected disability are excluded; general veterans benefits not tied to a service-connected disability remain CMI. The line distinction is meaningful because VA disability compensation differs from VA pension benefits in this respect.
Exclusion is at the source, not by category of recipient. A debtor who receives a payment from a multi-purpose government program must identify the statutory authority for that specific payment to determine whether it qualifies for exclusion. A program label is not enough; the question is whether the particular payment is one of the four enumerated exclusions.
The state median comparison is performed against a table indexed by state and household size. Household size determines which row of the table applies. Two debtors with identical CMI may produce different above- or below-median routings if their household sizes differ.
The Bankruptcy Code does not define "household." Districts have adopted three competing approaches:
The choice can determine whether the debtor is above or below median. In a marginal case, the household-size dispute is the single most outcome-determinative input. The form does not instruct the debtor on which approach to apply; the answer depends on the practice of the district.
For a debtor who files jointly with a spouse, both incomes are included and the household includes both spouses. For a married debtor who files individually, the non-filing spouse's income is included in CMI for the eligibility comparison, but Form 122A-2 then permits a "marital adjustment" deduction for income the non-filing spouse does not contribute to household expenses. The marital adjustment is documented and often contested.
CMI multiplied by twelve produces annualized current monthly income. That figure is compared to the applicable state median family income for the debtor's household size, as published by the U.S. Trustee Program. The tables are updated approximately twice per year. The EOUST Means Testing website publishes the operative tables.
The comparison is performed in line 13 of Form 122A-1. If annualized CMI is at or below the applicable median, the form directs the debtor to skip Form 122A-2 entirely. There is no presumption of abuse. The trustee may still investigate under Section 707(b)(3) totality-of-circumstances, but the presumption framework of Section 707(b)(2) does not apply.
If annualized CMI exceeds the applicable median, the debtor must complete Form 122A-2 to determine whether the presumption of abuse arises. The above-median routing is not itself a finding of abuse; it is a finding that the deduction calculation must be performed.
A separate companion form, 122A-1Supp (Statement of Exemption from Presumption of Abuse Under Section 707(b)(2)), is filed by debtors whose circumstances exempt them from the presumption regardless of CMI. The two principal categories of exemption are:
The Form 122A-1Supp is not a substitute for Form 122A-1; both are filed where applicable. The exemption removes only the Section 707(b)(2) presumption framework; Section 707(b)(3) totality-of-circumstances and Section 707(a) general abuse review remain available to the trustee.
The trustee will request supporting documentation for CMI inputs. Standard requests include the six most recent pay statements for each wage earner, six months of bank statements showing deposits, business profit-and-loss statements for any self-employment income, and 1099 statements for interest, dividend, royalty, and pension income. Discrepancies between Form 122A-1 figures and supporting documentation are the most common source of trustee objection at the initial meeting of creditors.
A pay-statement reconciliation that produces a different CMI figure than the form is not itself a basis for amendment; the controlling input is "amount received during the six-month period," which can diverge from year-to-date or annualized figures shown on pay statements. Care in the reconciliation prevents later argument that the form was inaccurate as filed.
Form 122A-1 produces a binary outcome but reflects layered determinations. The arithmetic of the form is uncontroversial; the classification of receipts and the household-size determination are not. A debtor who appears above-median on a first pass may be below-median after correct application of exclusions and the appropriate household-size methodology, or vice versa. The form's outputs should be tested against alternative classification assumptions before filing.
This page provides general information about Official Form 122A-1 and the Section 101(10A) current monthly income calculation. It does not constitute legal advice. The classification of receipts and the determination of household size depend on facts and on district practice that should be evaluated by qualified counsel.
Last modified: 2026-05-22