The Chapter 13 Discharge (and Why It's Broader)

Finishing a Chapter 13 repayment plan wipes out more debt than finishing a Chapter 7 case does. Both chapters end in a discharge — a permanent court order that you no longer owe the debts it covers — but Chapter 13's version reaches a couple of categories Chapter 7 can never touch, most notably certain debts you took on in a divorce. That's why bankruptcy lawyers sometimes call it the "super discharge." It isn't unlimited, though: support obligations, most recent taxes, student loans, and a handful of other debts survive no matter which chapter you file. Here's what completing a Chapter 13 plan actually buys you, what it doesn't, and what you have to do to get there.

What makes the Chapter 13 discharge "broader"

Under 11 U.S.C. § 1328(a), once you finish every payment called for by your confirmed plan, the court discharges the debts your plan provided for, subject to a specific list of exceptions. That exceptions list is shorter than the list of debts Chapter 7 leaves nondischargeable under 11 U.S.C. § 523(a) — and the gap between the two lists is the "super discharge." Two categories stand out:

• Property-settlement debts from a divorce or separation. If your divorce decree made you responsible for a joint debt, or ordered you to pay your ex-spouse a sum of money as part of dividing marital property (as opposed to child support or spousal support), that obligation is nondischargeable in Chapter 7 under § 523(a)(15) — but Chapter 13's discharge reaches it. Completing a Chapter 13 plan can discharge a "hold harmless" debt or property-equalization payment that would otherwise follow you indefinitely. See our guide on dividing debt in divorce vs. discharging it in bankruptcy for how this interacts with what your decree actually says.
• Debts for willful or malicious injury to property (not to a person) under § 523(a)(6) — for example, a judgment for intentionally damaging someone's car or vandalizing a rental unit. Chapter 7 never discharges this kind of debt; a completed Chapter 13 plan can.

Congress narrowed the super discharge substantially in 1990 and again in 2005, so it's smaller than it used to be — debts for fraud, embezzlement, and larceny (§ 523(a)(2) and (a)(4)) are excepted from the Chapter 13 discharge too, just as in Chapter 7. The current, controlling text is at 11 U.S.C. § 1328 on uscode.house.gov, and it's worth reading with your attorney if a specific debt's fate matters to your decision of which chapter to file.

What survives no matter what you file

Some debts are nondischargeable in every consumer bankruptcy chapter, including a completed Chapter 13 plan. Section 1328(a) specifically carries these over from § 523(a), plus two categories it adds on its own:

• Domestic support obligations — child support and spousal/domestic-partner support (§ 523(a)(5)). These are never discharged, and Chapter 13 requires you to certify you're current on them before you can even receive a discharge (more below).
• Most recent tax debts — certain priority tax claims and taxes for which no return was filed or that involved fraud (referencing § 507(a)(8)(C) and § 523(a)(1)(B)–(C)). Older income tax debt can sometimes be discharged even in Chapter 13, but the rules turn on timing and filing history; see the IRS's overview of bankruptcy and taxes at irs.gov and confirm your specific tax years with your attorney.
• Federal student loans — nondischargeable under § 523(a)(8) absent a showing of "undue hardship" in a separate court proceeding, a standard that applies regardless of which chapter you file. The undue-hardship standard is set by statute, but the process for federal loans has been evolving: a U.S. Department of Justice and Department of Education attestation process introduced in November 2022 (and periodically updated since) is designed to make these discharge requests more straightforward to evaluate and, in some cases, easier to obtain than they once were. Because this guidance can change, confirm the current federal framework at studentaid.gov's page on bankruptcy and student loans rather than relying on older descriptions, and discuss your specific loans with your attorney.
• Criminal restitution or fines from a conviction — carved out directly by § 1328(a)(2), not merely cross-referenced from § 523(a). These survive even the super discharge.
• Debts from driving under the influence — death or personal-injury debts arising from operating a vehicle while intoxicated are nondischargeable under § 523(a)(9), carried into Chapter 13 as well.
• Civil damages awards for willful or malicious injury to a person (not property) — added directly by § 1328(a)(4). This is the flip side of the property-injury debt discussed above: injure someone's car and Chapter 13 can discharge the judgment; injure a person and it can't.
• Long-term mortgage or other debts your plan simply carries past the plan's end — under § 1328(a)(1), if your plan cured a mortgage arrearage under § 1322(b)(5) with payments still due after the plan ends, the ongoing mortgage obligation itself isn't discharged; you keep paying it under its original terms.

If you filed Chapter 13 specifically hoping to discharge one of these, talk to your attorney before you count on it — the categories above are essentially fixed by federal statute and don't vary by state or by how sympathetic the circumstances are.

What you have to do to actually get the discharge

The super discharge isn't automatic just because your case doesn't get dismissed along the way. Section 1328 conditions it on completing three things:

1. Every payment called for by your confirmed plan. Chapter 13 plans typically run several years; the discharge comes only after the plan is fully paid, not partway through. If your circumstances change and you can no longer keep up, talk to your attorney promptly about modifying the plan — don't just stop paying.
2. A second financial-management course. Just as in Chapter 7, § 1328(g) bars the court from entering a discharge unless you've completed an approved instructional course in personal financial management (separate from the credit-counseling course required before you filed). This is easy to overlook because it comes so late in a multi-year case — some filers forget about it entirely by the time their plan is finally paid off. Use only an agency approved for your district; the current list is maintained by the U.S. Trustee Program at justice.gov/ust.
3. Certifying you're current on domestic support. Before discharge, you must certify that all support payments that came due on or before the certification date — both under any court order and under any applicable state statute — have actually been paid. Falling behind on support during your plan, even while staying current on your plan payments, can block the discharge until you catch up.

There's also a timing bar: you generally can't get a Chapter 13 discharge if you received a discharge in a prior Chapter 7, 11, or 12 case filed within the four years before your current case, or a prior Chapter 13 case filed within the two years before it. If you've filed before, ask your attorney to check this early — it affects whether a discharge is even possible in your new case, not just how long it takes.

If you can't finish the plan: the hardship discharge

Some Chapter 13 filers lose a job, get sick, or otherwise can't complete their plan through no fault of their own. In narrow circumstances, § 1328(b) allows a "hardship discharge" without finishing every payment — but it comes with a real trade-off: its exceptions match Chapter 7's full § 523(a) list, not the narrower super-discharge list, so you lose the property-settlement and property-injury benefit described above. Our guide to the Chapter 13 hardship discharge covers when it's available and how it compares to converting your case to Chapter 7 instead.

What to do

• Ask your attorney, before you choose a chapter, whether any specific debt you're worried about — a divorce property debt, a property-damage judgment — is the kind Chapter 13's broader discharge would actually reach.
• Keep making every plan payment on schedule, and contact your attorney immediately if you can't, rather than letting the case lapse.
• Complete the post-filing financial-management course well before your plan is scheduled to end — don't wait for a court notice to remind you.
• Stay current on any support order throughout the plan, and be ready to certify it at the end.
• Confirm current program details, approved course providers, and official forms at uscourts.gov and justice.gov/ust rather than relying on a general summary like this one.

Beware of scams

Watch out for for-profit debt-settlement or "debt relief" companies that claim they can get the same result as a Chapter 13 discharge without a court case, often for large upfront fees — the CFPB and FTC have both warned about these programs, which don't have the force of a federal discharge order and can leave you worse off. A non-attorney "petition preparer" can type your forms but cannot legally tell you which debts your plan will discharge or how a divorce decree interacts with your bankruptcy — that's legal advice. If cost is the obstacle, look into legal aid, a law-school bankruptcy clinic, or your court's self-help resources through uscourts.gov, and use only a U.S. Trustee-approved agency for the required courses.

This article is general legal information, not legal advice, and reading it doesn't create an attorney-client relationship. Whether a specific debt will survive or be discharged in your case depends on your facts and your district's practice — talk to a qualified bankruptcy attorney before you count on any outcome.