§1326 Payments

Summary

The debtor must start making plan payments no later than 30 days after the plan is filed or the case begins, whichever is earlier. The money paid should match the plan’s stated payment to the trustee. If the debtor pays a lease or a creditor directly for personal property amounts that come due after the case starts, those direct payments lower what the debtor owes the trustee if proof (amount and date) is given. The trustee holds payments until the court confirms the plan. If the plan is confirmed, the trustee pays them out. If it is not confirmed, the trustee returns any payments that were not already paid out and are not yet due, after taking any allowed administrative claim under section 503(b). Before confirmation, the court can change payment amounts after notice and a hearing and subject to section 363. Within 60 days after filing, a debtor who keeps leased or purchase‑secured personal property must give the lessor or secured creditor proof of required insurance and keep doing so while the debtor has the property. Before or when the trustee pays creditors, the trustee must first pay any unpaid claims like those in section 507(a)(2), the standing trustee fee set in section 586(e)(1)(B) if a standing trustee serves, and any unpaid chapter 7 trustee compensation from a prior case as described in subsection (b)(3). That prior compensation is spread over the remaining plan months and paid monthly, but each monthly payment cannot exceed the greater of $25 or 5 percent of the plan’s total to unsecured nonpriority creditors divided by the number of months in the plan. Unless the plan or the confirmation order says otherwise, the trustee makes the payments. The unpaid chapter 7 compensation can still be collected here even if it was discharged in a prior case, but only as allowed by subsection (b)(3).