New Hampshire State Bankruptcy Exemptions
§ 480:1. Amount [Homestead]
Every person is entitled to $ 100,000 worth of his or her homestead, or of his
or her interest therein, as a homestead. The homestead right created by this
chapter shall exist in manufactured housing, as defined by RSA 674:31, which is
owned and occupied as a dwelling by the same person but shall not exist in the
land upon which the manufactured housing is situated if that land is not also
owned by the owner of the manufactured housing.
§ 511:2. Exemptions
The following goods and property are exempted from attachment and execution:
I. The wearing apparel necessary for the use of the debtor and the debtor's
family.
II. Comfortable beds, bedsteads and bedding necessary for the debtor, the
debtor's spouse and children.
III. Household furniture to the value of $ 3,500.
IV. One cook stove, one heating stove and one refrigerator and necessary
utensils belonging to the same.
V. One sewing machine, kept for use by the debtor or the debtor's family.
VI. Provisions and fuel to the value of $ 400.
VII. The uniform, arms and equipments of every officer and private in the
militia.
VIII. The Bibles, school books and library of any debtor, used by the debtor or
the debtor's family, to the value of $ 800.
IX. Tools of the debtor's occupation to the value of $ 5,000.
X. One hog and one pig, and the pork of the same when slaughtered.
XI. Six sheep and the fleeces of the same.
XII. One cow; a yoke of oxen or a horse, when required for farming or teaming
purposes or other actual use; and hay not exceeding 4 tons.
XIII. Domestic fowls not exceeding $ 300 in value.
XIV. The debtor's interest in one pew in any meetinghouse in which the debtor or
the debtor's family usually worship.
XV. The debtor's interest in one lot or right of burial in any cemetery.
XVI. One automobile to the value of $ 4,000.
XVII. Jewelry owned by the debtor or the debtor's family to the value of $ 500.
XVIII. The debtor's interest in any property, not to exceed $ 1,000 in value,
plus up to $ 7,000 of any unused amount of the exemptions provided under
paragraphs III, VI, VIII, IX, XVI, and XVII of this section.
XIX. Subject to the Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act, RSA 545-A, any interest in
a retirement plan or arrangement qualified for tax exemption purposes under
present or future acts of Congress; provided, any transfer or rollover
contribution between retirement plans shall not be deemed a transfer which is
fraudulent as to a creditor under the Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act.
"Retirement plan or arrangement qualified for tax exemption purposes" shall
include without limitation, trusts, custodial accounts, insurance, annuity
contracts, and other properties and rights constituting a part thereof. By way
of example and not by limitation, retirement plans or arrangements qualified
for tax exemption purposes permitted under present acts of Congress include
defined contribution plans and defined benefit plans as defined under the
Internal Revenue Code (IRC), individual retirement accounts including Roth IRAs
and education IRAs, individual retirement annuities, simplified employee
pension plans, Keogh plans, IRC section 403(a) annuity plans, IRC section
403(b) annuities, and eligible state deferred compensation plans governed under
IRC section 457. This paragraph shall be in addition to and not a limitation of
any other provision of New Hampshire law which grants an exemption from
attachment or execution and every other species of forced sale for the payment
of debts. This paragraph shall be effective for retirement plans and
arrangements in existence on, or created after January 1, 1999, but shall apply
only to extensions of credit made, and debts arising, after January 1, 1999.
§ 512:21. List of Exemptions
The money, rights, and credits of the defendant shall be exempt from trustee
process in the following instances, and the trustee shall not be chargeable
therefor:
I. Wages for labor performed by the defendant after the service of the writ upon
the trustee.
II. Except as otherwise provided in paragraph X of this section, wages of the
defendant earned before the service of the writ upon the trustee shall be
exempt except in actions founded upon a debt on a judgment issued by a New
Hampshire court of competent jurisdiction. In such case, the wages of the
defendant earned before the service of a writ upon the trustee founded upon a
debt on a judgment to the amount of 50 times the minimum hourly wage as
established by the Fair Labor Standards Act for each week shall be exempt. The
employer shall pay said exempted amount to the employee on the usual payday
unless other cause exists prohibiting such payment.
III. Wages for the personal services and earnings of the wife and minor children
of the defendant.
IV. Any pension or bounty money of the defendant allowed by any law of the
United States before it has come into his actual possession.
V. Funds held by the trustee in the capacity of clerk, cashier, or other
employee of the defendant which were received in the ordinary course of such
employment.
VI. Fees due to the defendant for attendance at court as a juror or witness.
VII. Damages recovered for the conversion of property exempt from attachment.
VIII. Money, rights, and credits of the defendant in the hands of any insurance
company or its agents whenever the same is due on account of the loss of, or
damage by fire to, any property which by the laws of this state was exempt from
attachment or levy on execution; provided, that whenever a building or
structure so damaged or destroyed was a part of the homestead, only so much of
the amount due therefor shall be exempt as, together with the value of the part
of the homestead remaining, if any, shall equal the sum of $ 5,000.
IX. Wages of the defendant earned before the service of the writ upon the
trustee, to the amount of $ 50 for each week, shall be exempt in any action
founded upon any loan contract subject to the provisions of RSA 399-A.
X. Wages of the defendant earned before service of the writ upon the trustee if
the defendant is a married woman and the action is founded upon any loan
contract subject to the provisions of RSA 399-A on which her husband is or was
at any time an obligor, jointly or severally, contingently or otherwise.
XI. Money, rights, and credits of the defendant deposited in any account
designated as a payroll account.
§ 281-A:52. Assignments; Exemption From Claims of Creditors; Attorneys' Fees
I. Claims for compensation under this chapter shall not be assignable, and the
compensation and any claim for compensation shall be exempt from all claims of
creditors except as provided in this section. Claims for payment by physicians,
hospitals, and for other remedial care chargeable to the employee and rendered
in connection with a compensated injury and claims of attorneys for services
rendered an employee in prosecuting a claim under this chapter, when approved
by the superior court, may be enforced against the compensation award in such
manner as the superior court may direct.
II. Claims for child support payments, pursuant to RSA 458-B, may be enforced
against compensation awards.
§ 282-A:159. Assignment or Attachment of Benefits; Child Support Obligations;
Overissuance of Food Stamp Coupons; Income Tax Witholding
I. Any assignment, pledge, or encumbrance of any right to benefits which are or
may become due or payable under this chapter shall be void. Such rights to
benefits shall be exempt from levy, execution, attachment, or any other remedy
whatsoever provided for the collection of debt or taxes. Benefits received by
any individual, so long as they are not mingled with other funds of the
recipient, shall be exempt from any remedy whatsoever for the collection of all
debts except debts incurred for necessaries furnished to such individual or
such individual's spouse or dependents during the time when such individual was
unemployed. Any waiver of any exemption provided for in this section shall be
void except for child support obligations and food stamp overissuances as
provided in RSA 282-A:31 and this section and, if the individual so elects,
withholding of federal income tax under rules adopted by the commissioner.
II. The commissioner is authorized to pay a portion or all of the unemployment
compensation otherwise payable to a claimant to any agency of the state or its
political subdivisions which enforces child support obligations. The amount so
paid shall be deemed to be paid to the claimant. No such payment shall be made
hereunder unless the New Hampshire department of health and human services or
another New Hampshire governmental agency:
(a) Submits to the commissioner of the department of employment security the
claimant's authorization for such child support, or the order of any court or
administrative agency of competent jurisdiction for such child support, equal
to or exceeding the child support requested; and
(b) Pays monthly, in advance, to the department of employment security
administration costs as determined by the commissioner.
III. The commissioner may, if it is in the best interest of the state, enter
into agreements to pay to a state or the federal government a portion or all of
the unemployment compensation otherwise payable to a claimant if unemployment
compensation benefits have been found overpaid under such state or federal
unemployment compensation law.
IV. (a) The commissioner is authorized to adopt rules under RSA 541-A and enter
into an agreement with the department of health and human services to pay a
portion or all of the unemployment compensation payable to an individual
consistent with section 303(d)(1) and (2) of the Social Security Act and
section 13(b)(1) of the Food Stamp Act of 1977, to notify the department of
health and human services that an individual with an overissuance of food stamp
coupons has applied for unemployment compensation, and to withhold and deduct
unemployment compensation otherwise payable in amounts consistent with the
federal law and this paragraph. Amounts so withheld shall be deemed to have
been paid to the claimant.
(b) No such deduction or payment shall be made under this paragraph unless the
department of health and human services:
(1) Submits to the department of employment security an appropriate decision of
an administrative agency or a court supporting the overissuance.
(2) Pays monthly, in advance, the department of employment security's
administrative costs as provided for in the agreement.
§ 167:25. Assignability of Assistance
All assistance given hereunder shall be inalienable by any assignment or
transfer and shall be exempt from levy or execution under the laws of this
state.
§ 418:17. Benefits not Attachable
No money or other benefit, charity, relief or aid to be paid, provided or
rendered by any society, shall be liable to attachment, garnishment or other
process, or to be seized, taken, appropriated or applied by any legal or
equitable process or operation of law to pay any debt or liability of a member
or beneficiary, or any other person who may have a right thereunder, either
before or after payment by the society; provided, however, that this section
shall not apply to loans or other obligations owing to the society from the
member or his or her benefactory.
§ 102:23. Exemption of Contributions and Benefits; Assignability
The payments made by permanent firemen to the retirement board and the benefits
or compensation received hereunder shall be exempt from taxation, attachment,
and the operation of laws relating to insolvency or bankruptcy. No assignment
of compensation due under this chapter shall be valid unless approved by the
board.
§ 402:69. Exemption
The money due a fireman, or in case of his death his parents, widow or
children, by reason of any rule or bylaw of said association, shall be exempt
from attachment or trustee process.
§ 304-A:25. Nature of a Partner's Right in Specific Partnership Property
I. A partner is co-owner with his partners of specific partnership property
holding as a tenant in partnership.
II. The incidents of this tenancy are such that:
(a) A partner, subject to the provisions of this chapter and to any agreement
between the partners, has an equal right with his partners to possess specific
partnership property for partnership purposes; but he has no right to possess
such property for any other purpose without the consent of his partners.
(b) A partner's right in specific partnership property is not assignable except
in connection with the assignment of rights of all the partners in the same
property.
(c) A partner's right in specific partnership property is not subject to
attachment, trustee process or execution, except on a claim against the
partnership. When partnership property is attached for a partnership debt, the
partners, or any of them, or the representatives of a deceased partner, cannot
claim any right under the homestead or exemption laws.
(d) On the death of a partner, his right in specific partnership property vests
in the surviving partner or partners, except where the deceased was the last
surviving partner, when his right in such property vests in his legal
representative. Such surviving partner or partners, or the legal representative
of the last surviving partner, has no right to possess the partnership property
for any but a partnership purpose.
(e) A partner's right in specific partnership property is not subject to a
distributive share, or allowance to widows, heirs, or next of kin.
Note: Exemptions may have changed since our last update. For the latest updates on these property exemptions, speak to a local bankruptcy lawyer.
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