Anonymous
08/08/2016 07:51
Subject: Filing bankruptcy in order to keep my security clearance
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).
Anonymous
08/01/2016 07:25
Subject: Filing bankruptcy in order to keep my security clearance
Tax debt is dischargeable after a certain length of time has passed.
Anonymous
07/29/2016 19:16
Subject: Filing bankruptcy in order to keep my security clearance
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.
Sorry to hear about your string of bad luck.