Debts That Survive a Discharge

A discharge releases the debtor from personal liability on most pre-petition debts and replaces the automatic stay with a permanent injunction against collecting them. It does not reach everything. Section 523 excepts a long list: recent and improperly reported taxes, domestic support obligations, most student loans, debts obtained by fraud or a false financial statement, fiduciary defalcation, willful and malicious injury, most governmental fines and penalties, and liability for death or injury caused by driving while intoxicated. Some of those exceptions apply on their own; others disappear unless the creditor litigates them on a short deadline.

1.Two kinds of exception

The distinction that governs practice is procedural rather than moral. A handful of exceptions require a creditor to come forward: those based on fraud or false pretenses, use of a materially false written financial statement, fiduciary defalcation, embezzlement or larceny, willful and malicious injury, and certain divorce obligations that are not support. If no complaint is filed within the period fixed by the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure — measured from the first date set for the meeting of creditors — the debt is discharged even if the underlying conduct would have qualified.

Everything else on the list operates automatically. Support obligations, most taxes, student loans, and drunk-driving liabilities survive whether or not anyone raises them during the case. They can be litigated later, in any court with jurisdiction, when someone tries to collect.

Caution: The deadline for the creditor-initiated categories is short and is not extended by ignorance of the case. A creditor who learns of a filing late should check the docket for the date immediately and move for an extension before it passes, not after.

2.Taxes

Tax debts are the most commonly misunderstood category, because some of them genuinely are dischargeable. The exception covers taxes entitled to priority, taxes for which no return was filed, taxes for which a return was filed late and within two years before the bankruptcy, and any tax the debtor attempted to evade or defeat by a fraudulent return or willful conduct.

The practical consequence is that older income taxes, properly reported on returns filed on time, may be discharged once the applicable periods have run, while recent liabilities and unfiled years are not. The analysis is date-driven and unforgiving, and it interacts with collection tools that exist outside bankruptcy — the alternatives are described in the entry on offers in compromise and installment agreements.

3.Student loans

Educational loans and certain educational benefit obligations survive unless excepting them would impose an undue hardship on the debtor and the debtor's dependents. The statute does not define undue hardship, and the courts have supplied two tests.

The Brunner test

Used in most circuits. The debtor must show inability to maintain a minimal standard of living while repaying, that this state of affairs is likely to persist for a significant portion of the repayment period, and that good faith efforts to repay were made.

The totality of the circumstances test

Used in a minority of circuits. The court weighs past, present, and reasonably reliable future finances, necessary living expenses, and any other relevant facts, without the rigid three-part structure.

Discharge requires an adversary proceeding regardless of which test applies; unlike the fraud categories, it is not lost by a missed deadline, but it does not happen by itself. As of mid-2026, an important practical development sits alongside the case law: in November 2022 the Department of Justice, with the Department of Education, adopted a guidance process under which the government evaluates attestation-based information about a borrower's circumstances and may stipulate to or recommend discharge. The process changed outcomes without changing the statute. Because it is agency guidance rather than legislation, its current status should be confirmed on the U.S. Trustee Program's site before relying on it.

4.The rest of the list

Two more deserve mention. Fines, penalties, and forfeitures payable to a governmental unit that are not compensation for actual loss survive. And certain condominium or homeowners' association assessments coming due after filing, while the debtor retains an interest in the unit, are excepted as well.

5.What a discharge never does

Even for a fully discharged debt, section 524 operates against personal liability, not against liens. A mortgage or a car loan survives as an in rem claim; the lender cannot sue the debtor but can foreclose or repossess. Removing a lien requires a separate step, whether avoidance in the case or payment.

A discharge also does not touch a co-obligor. A guarantor, a co-signer, or a jointly liable spouse who did not file remains fully liable, and creditors regularly pursue them. Nor does it bind a debtor who voluntarily agrees to remain liable — the mechanics and safeguards of that choice are set out in the entry on reaffirmation agreements.

6.Questions this raises

Who bears the burden in a dischargeability suit?

The objecting creditor, by a preponderance of the evidence, on the fraud and injury grounds. That standard was settled by the Supreme Court and is uniform across the circuits. For student loans the burden runs the other way: the debtor must prove undue hardship. Tax dischargeability is usually resolved by dates and filing records rather than by testimony about intent.

Can a debt be split, part discharged and part not?

Yes. Courts routinely find that only the portion of a claim attributable to the excepted conduct survives. A judgment that mixes compensatory damages for a deliberate injury with an unrelated contract balance may be divided, and interest and fees generally follow the character of the principal they attach to. The division is a matter of proof, so records matter.

Does a state court judgment settle the question?

Sometimes. A prior judgment can have preclusive effect if the state court actually decided the same issue that the exception requires, it was necessary to the judgment, and the party had a full opportunity to litigate. A default judgment often fails that test. The bankruptcy court decides dischargeability itself, even when it borrows findings from elsewhere.

What if a creditor keeps collecting on a discharged debt?

The discharge injunction is enforced by the bankruptcy court, ordinarily through contempt rather than a separate lawsuit. The Supreme Court has held that civil contempt is appropriate where there is no fair ground of doubt that the conduct was unlawful. Practically, the first step is a written notice with the discharge order attached, which resolves most instances.

7.Checking a debt, in order

For each significant obligation, ask four questions in sequence. What kind of debt is it, in substance rather than in label — a divorce provision described as a property division may still function as support. When did it arise, since most tax and credit-related exceptions turn on dates. Is there a lien, because a lien changes the answer regardless of dischargeability. And does the exception require someone to act, since a missed deadline resolves several categories permanently.

Creditors should reverse the order: identify the deadline first, then assemble proof, then decide whether the claim is worth an adversary proceeding. General procedural material is published by the federal judiciary, and district practice fills in the rest.