Bankruptcy 3-2-240 Calculator for Income Tax

Can bankruptcy wipe out my income tax?

Income tax can be discharged only if the return was last due, including extensions, more than three years before you file bankruptcy. If the return was filed late, it must have been filed more than two years before you file bankruptcy. The tax must have been assessed more than 240 days before you file bankruptcy.

3-2-240 checker

When could income tax be discharged in bankruptcy?

1. Tax years

Tax year 2022

Tax year

I had an extension to file (due April 18, 2023)

The return

Date the return was filed

Date the tax was assessed (use the latest assessment for the year)

2. Events that pause the clocks (optional)

Results

Tax year 2022
Enter the filed date and assessment date to check this year.
Tax for a year with no return filed cannot be discharged.
The tax must have been assessed more than 240 days before you file bankruptcy.

The math runs on your device. Nothing you enter is sent to us.

Timing only. Meeting the timing rules does not guarantee a discharge, and the bankruptcy court decides. Have your IRS account transcripts reviewed before you file. Terms and disclaimer

The three timing rules

What pauses the clocks

These waiting periods are paused while collection is barred by a hearing request and appeal, during a prior bankruptcy, or while a confirmed plan blocks collection, plus 90 days. The 240 days are also paused while an offer in compromise on that tax is pending or in effect, plus 30 days. The IRS says the two-year period for late returns is also paused during a prior bankruptcy. The IRS says a disaster or emergency postponement of the filing deadline does not change these bankruptcy time periods.

Taxes the timing rules cannot fix

Tax for a year with no return filed cannot be discharged. A return the IRS prepares for you, called a substitute for return, does not count as your return. The IRS position is that if you file after it assessed a substitute for return, only tax that was not already assessed can be discharged. Courts disagree about late returns, and some hold that tax on a return filed even one day late cannot be discharged. Tax on a fraudulent return, or tax you willfully tried to evade, cannot be discharged. Trust fund taxes and the trust fund recovery penalty are not discharged.

Penalties and interest

A tax penalty for an event more than three years before you file bankruptcy can be discharged, even if the tax cannot. Interest on a tax that cannot be discharged is not discharged either.

Sources

Checked October 26, 2026.