Chapter 7 Means Test Calculator: Illinois Limits and Deductions

To estimate whether you qualify for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Illinois, the means test calculator compares your household’s annualized income against the Illinois median for your household size. Pass that comparison and you are eligible without further analysis. For cases filed on or after April 1, 2026, the Illinois median is $73,180 for a single earner, $93,934 for two people, $113,625 for three, and $137,902 for a household of four.¹ If your income exceeds those thresholds, a second calculation subtracts standardized living expenses to measure whether you have enough disposable income to fund a repayment plan.

Calculating Your Current Monthly Income

The input to the calculator is not what you earn today. It is “current monthly income” (CMI), a defined term meaning the average of all gross income you received during the six full calendar months before your filing date.² File in July, and you average January through June. Multiply that monthly average by 12 to get the figure you compare to the Illinois median.

Almost every dollar goes into the average. Wages, salary, bonuses, overtime, commissions, net business income, rental income, interest, dividends, and pension or retirement distributions all count. Regular contributions from a non-filing housemate toward your household expenses count. Alimony received during the six-month window counts.²

A short list of income types is excluded by statute. Social Security benefits of any kind are left out. So are payments to victims of war crimes, international terrorism, or domestic terrorism, and certain military disability compensation, pensions, and combat-related pay.² For veterans and survivors, those exclusions can move an above-median case below the line.

Married Filers

If you are married and filing alone, your spouse’s income is added to yours for the median comparison. The exception is legal separation or living apart for reasons unrelated to the means test, in which case you can exclude spousal income by filing a sworn statement.³ Even when spousal income has to be included, a “marital adjustment” on Form 122A-1 lets you subtract portions your spouse spends on personal obligations that do not benefit your household. That adjustment can pull your effective CMI back under the median.

Illinois Median Income Limits

The Illinois medians come from Census data and are refreshed by the U.S. Trustee Program several times a year. Use the table in effect on the date your petition is filed, not the date you start preparing.

For cases filed between November 1, 2025, and March 31, 2026:⁴

1 earner: $71,304
2 people: $91,526
3 people: $110,712
4 people: $134,366

For cases filed on or after April 1, 2026:¹

1 earner: $73,180
2 people: $93,934
3 people: $113,625
4 people: $137,902

For households larger than four, add $11,100 per additional person. Household size includes you, your spouse (even if not filing jointly), and any dependents living with you. If your annualized CMI is at or below the applicable figure, no one can move to dismiss your Chapter 7 case as abusive, and the second phase of the means test does not apply.³

When the Means Test Doesn’t Apply

Two categories of filers skip the means test entirely regardless of income.

The test applies only when your debts are “primarily consumer debts,” meaning more than half your total debt comes from personal, family, or household obligations. If the majority of your debt is business-related, the means test does not apply.³ Self-employed filers and small business owners whose debt came from a failed business rather than credit cards and medical bills often qualify on this basis alone.

Disabled veterans are exempt if they hold any VA or Department of Defense disability rating and incurred their debt primarily while on active duty or performing a homeland defense activity.³ The rating percentage is irrelevant. A separate exemption covers reservists and National Guard members called to active duty for 90 or more days after September 11, 2001, and runs through the service period plus 540 days after release.

Above the Median: Deducting Allowed Expenses

If your annualized income exceeds the Illinois median, you move to Form 122A-2 and start subtracting expenses from your CMI. This is not a monthly budget you fill in freely. Most deductions are capped by IRS standards, and the court uses those caps even when your actual spending runs higher.

Food, Clothing, and Personal Items

The first block of deductions covers food, housekeeping supplies, clothing, personal care, and miscellaneous expenses. These use IRS National Standards based on household size alone. Everyone in a household of the same size gets the same allowance.⁵

Housing, Utilities, and Transportation

Housing and utility deductions use IRS Local Standards that vary by Illinois county. Cook County limits differ from those in rural downstate counties. The allowance covers rent or mortgage, property taxes, homeowner’s insurance, and utilities, and you take the lesser of the Local Standard amount or what you actually pay.⁵

Transportation deductions divide in two. Ownership costs cover loan or lease payments up to a capped amount per vehicle. Operating costs cover fuel, insurance, maintenance, and registration, and the operating allowance also varies by region. A paid-off car qualifies for the operating deduction but not the ownership deduction.

Other Deductions That Often Decide the Case

Several additional deductions frequently push a filer over the pass line. Actual monthly payments on secured debts like a mortgage or car loan are deductible separately from the Local Standards allowances. Health insurance, disability insurance, and health savings account contributions are deductible at amounts you reasonably need, even if you are not currently paying for coverage.³ Past-due priority debts like back taxes, child support arrears, or alimony arrears are divided by 60 and deducted monthly.⁶ Childcare, mandatory payroll deductions, and court-ordered payments each get their own lines.

One trap worth flagging: plug your deduction figures in from the U.S. Trustee Program’s expense tables for Illinois, not the IRS website. The IRS publishes similar-looking standards for tax collection, and they are not identical to the bankruptcy versions.⁷

What Your Disposable Income Number Means

Subtract all allowed expenses from your CMI, then multiply the monthly leftover by 60. That five-year figure determines whether a “presumption of abuse” arises. The current thresholds, adjusted in April 2025, are:⁸

60-month disposable income below $10,275: no presumption of abuse, and you pass.
60-month disposable income of $17,150 or more: presumption of abuse arises, and you fail.
Between $10,275 and $17,150: abuse is presumed only if the 60-month total equals or exceeds 25% of your nonpriority unsecured debts.

Translated to monthly terms, roughly $171 or less of disposable income clears the test outright. Above roughly $286 per month, the case is presumed abusive. In the middle band, your unsecured debt load decides it.

If the Presumption of Abuse Arises

Failing the test does not automatically end your case. You can rebut the presumption by showing “special circumstances” that justify additional expenses or income adjustments with no reasonable alternative. The statute names two examples: a serious medical condition and a call to active military duty.³

The bar is high. You must itemize every added expense or income adjustment, document each one, explain in detail why it is necessary, and attest to the accuracy under oath. Even then, the recalculated 60-month figure has to fall below the same $10,275/$17,150 thresholds to overcome the presumption.³

If the presumption stands and cannot be rebutted, the court can dismiss the case or, with your consent, convert it to Chapter 13.³ Chapter 13 lets you keep property but requires paying creditors from future income over three to five years. Filers who land clearly above the Illinois threshold often start with Chapter 13 rather than filing a Chapter 7 case likely to draw a Trustee challenge.

The Forms Behind the Calculator

Two official forms carry the calculation. Form 122A-1 is where you compute CMI and compare it to the Illinois median.⁹ If you are at or below the median, you stop there. If you are above, Form 122A-2 walks through every allowable deduction and produces the disposable income figure.⁶ You will need pay stubs covering the full six-month lookback, recent tax returns, bank statements, and documentation for every recurring expense. Casual estimates do not survive the U.S. Trustee’s review.

1
U.S. Trustee Program. Means Testing – Median Income Table (April 1, 2026)
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 101 – Definitions
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 707 – Dismissal of a Case or Conversion to a Case Under Chapter 11 or 13
4
U.S. Trustee Program. Means Testing – Median Income Table (November 1, 2025)
5
U.S. Trustee Program. Means Testing – Section II IRS Data and General Information for Completing Bankruptcy Forms
6
United States Courts. Official Form 122A-2 Chapter 7 Means Test Calculation
7
Internal Revenue Service. National Standards Food Clothing and Other Items
8
Federal Register. Adjustment of Certain Dollar Amounts Applicable to Bankruptcy Cases
9
United States Courts. Official Form 122A-1 Chapter 7 Statement of Your Current Monthly Income