Expert: Mark J. Markus- California Bankruptcy Attorney - 5/9/2008

Question
A small part of my income (about $6k) comes from a part-time job, for which I am an independent contractor and receive a 1099 at the end of the year. The way I am paid is that the company sends me a personal check every 2 weeks, and I just deposit it into my bank account. I have had this job for several years now. The only expenses I claim on taxes is mileage on my car and Internet access.

On my taxes it is filed as self-employment, but I have never bothered to keep any records (ledgers, etc.), since it's not a business in the sense where I have lots of accounts receivables or expenses. For the past couple of months I have been depositing these personal checks individually and keeping the ATM receipts, so that when I file in a few months I can at least have a record of the deposits.

Previous to that, I would sometimes deposit these checks along with any other checks/cash I wanted to deposit (for example perhaps someone gave us a small cash gift for Xmas, I would deposit that with the check).

Could the trustee make a stink about the fact that I will only have a few months of ATM deposit receipts? I was thinking about taking photocopies of the checks before I deposit them, but not sure if that is necessary

One thing I forgot to add...the income from this job is pretty much the same every two weeks (with an occassional increase during the holidays, the job consists of doing computer support on an on-call basis from home, so I am paid per shift...holiday shifts paid a little bit more)

Thanks

Answer
Well, I doubt the Trustee will make a stink about it, but you are required to list all income received (as that term is defined in the Bankruptcy Code) in the relevant portion of the 6 months prior to filing your case.  All cases are subject to being audited and if that happens, you would need to be able to prove where you came up with the figures (not to mention your obligation to list the information on your future/past tax returns).