Should I estimate my income if I haven't filed taxes yet?

Written by Attorney Jonathan Petts.  
Updated July 22, 2020

If you do not have official documents, it is OK to estimate your gross income. If you do not feel comfortable estimating you can:

1. Look at your most recent pay statement and use it to find your gross (before taxes) income year to date. If you were only paid for part of the year, you can calculate your average monthly income for the year by diving the total amount you have been paid by 12.

2. Call or contact your employer's HR department or payroll manager and ask for the total gross income for the year. It is fine if you get this information over the phone - you will not need to provide documentation.

If your job doesn't provide you with pay statements, or if you get paid in cash, you still need to state your estimated annual and monthly income on your bankruptcy forms. You can estimate these amounts using your bank statements, app ledgers (for jobs like Lyft, Uber, or MTurk), or from memory.

Written By:

Attorney Jonathan Petts

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Jonathan Petts has over 10 years of experience in bankruptcy and is co-founder and Board Chair of Upsolve. Attorney Petts has an LLM in Bankruptcy from St. John's University, clerked for two federal bankruptcy judges, and worked at two top New York City law firms specializing in... read more about Attorney Jonathan Petts

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