Melvin Watt: “Mr. Chairman, this bill currently requires that every bankruptcy filer, no matter whether his filing is or is not…”

“Mr. Chairman, this bill currently requires that every bankruptcy filer, no matter whether his filing is or is not contested, file at least 3 years' worth of tax returns with the court. In our subcommittee we had hearings, and the bankruptcy judges, bankruptcy trustees, every single witness who came agreed that requiring all of these tax returns to be filed simply creates a massive paperwork burden and expense to the bankruptcy system, and that this was not a good idea. These burdens are unnecessary. Credit industry finance studies, consumer advocacy group finance studies, all indicate that the number of abusive Chapter 7 bankruptcy filings are approximately 10 percent, at most, of the bankruptcy filings. They also indicate that the vast majority of bankruptcy filings are what they categorize as uncontested filings.”