Filing bankruptcy in order to keep my security clearance

[Anonymous]

I'm also an administrator for security clearances and you will be fine. You just need to be honest and show you have a credible plan to pay it back. Also we (OPM) are about 3 years behind in adjudicating clearances so unless you're flagged as high risk you likely won't even come up for your 5 year review for a few more years. I've seen much worse go straight through.

Sorry to hear about your string of bad luck.

[Anonymous]

Tax debt is dischargeable after a certain length of time has passed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a top secret clearance. I have a lot of debt. I am nearing my 5 year reinvestigation and I am freaking out about what to do. I make 107k and I am about 50k in debt, most of which is tax debt. I am divorced with 3 kids living at home. My bad marriage/divorce is what put me in debt and I have ultra slowly been digging myself out (250 a month towards back taxes). I went to see an attorney and chapter 13 is my only option due to my income. If it were not for my clearance I would not file and would just continue to pay the debt off slowly. Does anyone have any ideas on other options that I may not be considering?

If the IRS is accepting your repayment plan and you're actually bringing the debt down, maybe no need to file -- if one of your kids needs a 50k medical procedure, you might want to save the "bullet" of bankruptcy for then.

As for your clearance:

1) If you don't disclose/share with your FSO you WILL lose your clearance.
2) If you do, there's a small chance you might lose it if the adjudicator is in a sour mood, but that could be appealed. But then go back up to (1).