You might be able to protect your motorcycle under the motor vehicle exemption. There are a few things to first consider:
- How much equity do you have in your motorcycle?
- Are you planning to use the Pennsylvania state bankruptcy exemptions, or the federal bankruptcy exemptions?
To calculate your equity in your motorcycle subtract the amount you owe on the motorcycle from the amount you would receive if you sold your motorcycle. This is the amount you’ll need to protect. If you have a negative equity in the motorcycle, you don’t need to worry about the bankruptcy trustee taking it away from you. Most likely, you can still keep your motorcycle as long as you keep making payments on it.
If you have a positive equity in your motorcycle, you need to consider if you are going to use the federal or Pennsylvania state bankruptcy exemptions. Based on the Pennsylvania exemptions, you would be able to protect $2,775 equity in your vehicle, and up to and addition $9,650 for the wildcard exemption (these amounts are per person – they can be doubled if filing jointly).
For the federal bankruptcy exemptions, you can protect $3,225 equity in your motor vehicle, along with the wildcard exemptions of $1,075 in any property (which can be applied to your motorcycle), and up to $10,125 of the homestead exemption, if you are not trying to protect home equity (these amounts are per person too – you can double them if you are filing jointly with your spouse).
