Subsection (a) of this section defines two terms: “dependent” includes the debtor’s spouse, whether or not actually dependent; and “value” means fair market value as of the date of the filing of the petition.
Subsection (b) tracks current law. It permits a debtor the exemptions to which he is entitled under other Federal law and the law of the State of his domicile. Some of the items that may be exempted under Federal laws other than title 11 include:
Foreign Service Retirement and Disability payments, 22 U.S.C. 1104; [1][1] Replaced by 22 U.S.C. 4060(c).
Social security payments, 42 U.S.C. 407;
Injury or death compensation payments from war risk hazards, 42 U.S.C. 1717;
Wages of fishermen, seamen, and apprentices, 46 U.S.C. 601; [2][2] Replaced by 46 U.S.C. 11108, 11109.
Civil service retirement benefits, 5 U.S.C. 729, 2265; [3][3] Replaced by 5 U.S.C. 8346.
Longshoremen’s and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act death and disability benefits, 33 U.S.C. 916;
Railroad Retirement Act annuities and pensions, 45 U.S.C. 228(L); [4][4] Replaced by 45 U.S.C. 231m.
Veterans benefits, 45 U.S.C. 352(E); [5][5] Railroad unemployment benefits are covered by 45 U.S.C. 352(e).
Special pensions paid to winners of the Congressional Medal of Honor, 38 U.S.C. 3101; [6][6] Veterans benefits generally are covered by 38 U.S.C. 3101 [now 5301]. and
Federal homestead lands on debts contracted before issuance of the patent, 43 U.S.C. 175.
He may also exempt an interest in property in which the debtor had an interest as a tenant by the entirety or joint tenant to the extent that interest would have been exempt from process under applicable nonbankruptcy law.
Under proposed section 541, all property of the debtor becomes property of the estate, but the debtor is permitted to exempt certain property from property of the estate under this section. Property may be exempted even if it is subject to a lien, but only the unencumbered portion of the property is to be counted in computing the “value” of the property for the purposes of exemption.
As under current law, the debtor will be permitted to convert nonexempt property into exempt property before filing a bankruptcy petition. The practice is not fraudulent as to creditors, and permits the debtor to make full use of the exemptions to which he is entitled under the law.
Subsection (c) insulates exempt property from prepetition claims other than tax claims (whether or not dischargeable), and other than alimony, maintenance, or support claims that are excepted from discharge. The bankruptcy discharge does not prevent enforcement of valid liens. The rule of Long v. Bullard, 117 U.S. 617 (1886), is accepted with respect to the enforcement of valid liens on nonexempt property as well as on exempt property. Cf. Louisville Joint Stock Land Bank v. Radford, 295 U.S. 555, 583 (1935).
Subsection (c)(3) permits the collection of dischargeable taxes from exempt assets. Only assets exempted from levy under Section 6334 of the Internal Revenue Code [title 26] or under applicable state or local tax law cannot be applied to satisfy these tax claims. This rule applies to prepetition tax claims against the debtor regardless of whether the claims do or do not receive priority and whether they are dischargeable or nondischargeable. Thus, even if a tax is dischargeable vis-a-vis the debtor’s after-acquired assets, it may nevertheless be collectible from exempt property held by the estate. (Taxes incurred by the debtor’s estate which are collectible as first priority administrative expenses are not collectible from the debtor’s estate which are collectible as first priority administrative expenses are not collectible from the debtor’s exempt assets.)
Subsection (d) protects the debtor’s exemptions, either Federal or State, by making unenforceable in a bankruptcy case a waiver of exemptions or a waiver of the debtor’s avoiding powers under the following subsections.
Subsection (e) protects the debtor’s exemptions, his discharge, and thus his fresh start by permitting him to avoid certain liens on exempt property. The debtor may avoid a judicial lien on any property to the extent that the property could have been exempted in the absence of the lien, and may similarly avoid a nonpurchase-money security interest in certain household and personal goods. The avoiding power is independent of any waiver of exemptions.
Subsection (f) gives the debtor the ability to exempt property that the trustee recovers under one of the trustee’s avoiding powers if the property was involuntarily transferred away from the debtor (such as by the fixing of a judicial lien) and if the debtor did not conceal the property. The debtor is also permitted to exempt property that the trustee recovers as the result of the avoiding of the fixing of certain security interests to the extent that the debtor could otherwise have exempted the property.
Subsection (g) provides that if the trustee does not exercise an avoiding power to recover a transfer of property that would be exempt, the debtor may exercise it and exempt the property, if the transfer was involuntary and the debtor did not conceal the property. If the debtor wishes to preserve his right to pursue any action under this provision, then he must intervene in any action brought by the trustee based on the same cause of action. It is not intended that the debtor be given an additional opportunity to avoid a transfer or that the transferee should have to defend the same action twice. Rather, the section is primarily designed to give the debtor the rights the trustee could have, but has not, pursued. The debtor is given no greater rights under this provision than the trustee, and thus, the debtor’s avoiding powers under proposed sections 544, 545, 547, and 548, are subject to proposed 546, as are the trustee’s powers.
These subsections are cumulative. The debtor is not required to choose which he will use to gain an exemption. Instead, he may use more than one in any particular instance, just as the trustee’s avoiding powers are cumulative.
Subsection (h) permits recovery by the debtor of property transferred by an avoided transfer from either the initial or subsequent transferees. It also permits preserving a transfer for the benefit of the debtor. In either event, the debtor may exempt the property recovered or preserved.
Subsection (i) makes clear that the debtor may exempt property under the avoiding subsections (f) and (h) only to the extent he has exempted less property than allowed under subsection (b).
Subsection (j) makes clear that the liability of the debtor’s exempt property is limited to the debtor’s aliquot share of the costs and expenses recovery of property that the trustee recovers and the debtor later exempts, and any costs and expenses of avoiding a transfer by the debtor that the debtor has not already paid.
Subsection (k) requires the debtor to file a list of property that he claims as exempt from property of the estate. Absent an objection to the list, the property is exempted. A dependent of the debtor may file it and thus be protected if the debtor fails to file the list.
Subsection (l) provides the rule for a joint case.
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