A bankruptcy discharge is the court order at the end of a case that ends your personal duty to pay the debts it covers. Once it is entered, creditors can’t sue, garnish or call to collect those debts from you (11 U.S.C. 524(a)). It doesn’t reach every debt. Section 523(a) keeps a list of debts alive, such as child support, most student loans and certain taxes. A lien on your house or car stays unless the case removed it, and a co-signer still owes. The pages in this hub take each kind of debt in turn, with the statute behind every rule.
This page is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice, and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Bankruptcy law and exemption amounts vary by state and change. Ask a bankruptcy lawyer, legal aid or the court about your situation.
Start with the discharge page, which sets out the general rule and every exception, then read the page for the debt you are worried about. If your pay is being garnished now, read that section first.
What the discharge does, and what it leaves
Our guide to what the discharge wipes out, and what it doesn’t is the centre of this hub. It explains three things the order does not do, which surprise many people:
- It doesn’t remove liens. A lien is a creditor’s legal claim on a specific piece of property, like a mortgage or a car loan. The discharge ends your personal liability, but a lender may still foreclose or repossess if the lien wasn’t avoided (Official Form 318).
- It doesn’t protect anyone else on the debt. A co-signer or guarantor can still be pursued (524(e)).
- It doesn’t cover debts from after you file. A Chapter 7 discharge reaches debts that arose before the case (727(b)).
The exceptions fall into two groups. Most debts on the 523(a) list survive on their own terms, with no lawsuit needed. Three kinds, fraud, fiduciary fraud or embezzlement, and willful and malicious injury, survive only if the creditor files a complaint within 60 days after the first date set for the meeting of creditors and wins (523(c); Fed. R. Bankr. P. 4007(c)). Whether a particular debt fits a paragraph is for the court.
| Debt | The rule in short | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Credit cards, medical bills, personal loans | Not on the 523(a) list; covered like other unsecured debts unless a creditor sues in time on fraud grounds | 727(b), 523(a), 523(c) |
| Child support and alimony | Not discharged | 523(a)(5) |
| Most student loans | Not discharged unless the court finds undue hardship, in a separate lawsuit | 523(a)(8) |
| Income tax | Some can be discharged if it passes the 3-year, 2-year and 240-day tests; never for an unfiled year or evasion | 523(a)(1), 507(a)(8) |
| A debt you reaffirm | Stays your personal obligation | 524(c) |
| A lien on property | Stays unless the case removed it | Official Form 318 |
Student loans
You list student loans like any other debt, but the discharge doesn’t wipe them out on its own. Most are excepted “unless excepting such debt from discharge … would impose an undue hardship on the debtor and the debtor’s dependents” (523(a)(8)). To ask, you file a separate lawsuit inside the case, called an adversary proceeding, and the judge decides. There is no deadline for that complaint (Rule 4007(b)). For loans held by the Department of Education, the Justice Department has used a sworn attestation form since November 2022 to decide whether to agree that the hardship test is met; its agreement is a recommendation, not binding on the court. Our page on student loans in bankruptcy walks through the form and the factors the government weighs.
Tax debt
“Taxes can’t be discharged” is false as a rule. Income tax can be discharged in Chapter 7 only if it passes three timing tests, often called 3-2-240: the return was last due, including extensions, more than 3 years before filing; any late return was filed more than 2 years before; and the tax was assessed more than 240 days before (507(a)(8), 523(a)(1)). Tax for a year with no return, or a fraudulent return or evasion, is never discharged, and a return the IRS prepared itself doesn’t count as yours. Some clocks pause, and a properly filed tax lien can stay on exempt property after the debt is gone (522(c)(2)(B)). Our page on tax debt in bankruptcy sets out each test, an example of the arithmetic and how Chapter 13 differs.
Medical bills
Medical bills are usually unsecured debt, and they are not a type on the 523(a) list. But you can’t file on them alone: the debtor files a list of all creditors (521(a)(1)), and a debt left off may not be discharged (523(a)(3)). Bills for care after a Chapter 7 filing are new debts. Our page on medical bills and bankruptcy covers those exceptions, nonprofit hospitals’ billing rules and medical costs in the means test.
Charges and cash advances just before filing
Two presumptions give creditors a head start under the fraud paragraph. For cases filed on or after 1 April 2025 (next adjustment 1 April 2028; 90 FR 8941): consumer debts to one creditor totalling more than $900 for luxury goods or services within 90 days before filing, and more than $1,250 in cash advances on open-end credit within 70 days before filing (523(a)(2)(C)). Luxury goods exclude things reasonably necessary to support you or a dependent. A presumption can be rebutted, and the creditor still has to sue within the deadline.
Secured debts and reaffirmation
A reaffirmation agreement is a written promise, made during the case, to stay personally liable for a debt the discharge would otherwise wipe out. Nobody has to sign one: the Code’s required wording says “you are not required to reaffirm a debt by any law” (524(k)(3)(J)). It counts only if it meets the conditions in 524(c): made before the discharge, with the disclosures, filed with the court, and, without a lawyer, approved by the judge (except for a consumer debt secured by real property). You can cancel it before the discharge or within 60 days after it is filed, whichever is later (524(c)(4)). In Chapter 7, a loan secured by personal property such as a car has a 45-day clock after the first meeting of creditors (521(a)(6)). Our page on reaffirmation agreements covers the forms, the deadlines and the other choices the Code describes. Whether to reaffirm is your decision, with a lawyer or the judge’s explanation.
Wage garnishment
Filing a bankruptcy petition starts the automatic stay, which halts most collection, including most garnishments for debts from before the case (362(a)). It doesn’t stop withholding for child support or alimony (362(b)(2)(C)), and for someone with a case dismissed in the past year it can end after 30 days or not start at all (362(c)(3), (4)). Outside bankruptcy, federal law caps an ordinary garnishment at the lesser of 25% of weekly disposable earnings or the amount above $217.50 a week, 30 times the $7.25 federal minimum wage (15 U.S.C. 1673(a)), and many states protect more. Our page on how wage garnishment stops works the limit out for every pay period and covers support, tax, federal and student loan garnishments.
How Chapter 13 differs
The Chapter 13 discharge comes after the last plan payment and covers debts provided for by the plan, with its own list of exceptions (1328(a)). The federal courts’ guide names three kinds of debt it can reach but a Chapter 7 discharge can’t: willful and malicious injury to property, debts incurred to pay surviving taxes, and divorce property settlements. But the plan must pay priority claims, such as domestic support and recent income taxes, in full unless the creditor agrees otherwise (1322(a)(2)), and a hardship discharge under 1328(b) is no broader than Chapter 7.
Claims you may see elsewhere
- “Student loans can never be discharged.” False. 523(a)(8) allows it on a finding of undue hardship.
- “Just wait three years and your taxes go away.” Incomplete. The 2-year and 240-day tests, the return rules and the paused clocks still apply.
- “You have to reaffirm to keep your car.” Not as a rule of law; the required disclosures say you are not required to.
Your next step
Make one list of everything you owe, including debts in collection, owed to family or that you think are settled, with each creditor’s name, address and account number. Mark any support order, student loan, tax year, lien or co-signer. Then read the federal courts’ guide to the discharge in bankruptcy. What can’t wait: a garnishment already running, a hearing or exemption deadline in court papers, and, once a case is filed, the 60-day deadlines counted from the first date set for the meeting of creditors. Whether a particular debt of yours would be discharged is a legal question for a bankruptcy lawyer, legal aid or a law school clinic; the court clerk can explain procedure but can’t give legal advice.
Sources checked on 7 November 2026.
