Bankruptcy Exemptions in Rhode Island

Up to $500,000 in the land and buildings (or personal property used as a residence) that the owner or rightful possessor occupies or intends to occupy as a principal residence. The homestead is automatic; no declaration needs to be filed. Only one principal residence per family qualifies. It does not protect against taxes and municipal liens, debts contracted before the homestead was acquired, debts for the purchase of the home, family court support orders, Medicaid reimbursement liens, mortgages and mechanics' liens, or debts owed to federally insured deposit-taking institutions or entities regulated under Title 19. The statute sets no acreage limit.

Any and all motor vehicles owned by the debtor, up to a combined total of $12,000.

In addition to the other exemptions, a debtor in bankruptcy may exempt an additional $6,500 in any assets.

Exempt are traditional and Roth IRAs and individual retirement annuities (Internal Revenue Code sections 408 and 408A) and their payments or distributions, and a person's interest in an annuity, pension, profit-sharing or other retirement plan protected by ERISA, which the statute says also applies in federal bankruptcy as permitted by 11 U.S.C. 522(d)(10)(E). These exemptions do not apply against divorce or separate-maintenance orders or child support orders, to excess IRA contributions, or to contributions and earnings in plans that are not qualified under IRC section 401.

Most debtors can exempt only $50 of salary or wages due or payable. All wages are exempt for a debtor who has received public relief, for one year after the relief ends, and wages paid from charitable or public relief funds to a debtor receiving that relief are fully exempt. Wages of the debtor's wife and minor children, and wages due to any sailor, are also exempt.