
Quoting
Taxing Matters
In a Chapter 7 bankruptcy the portion of the refund that is attributable to the pre-petition period is an asset of the bankrupt estate that trustee may take to pay towards your creditors. Since the 2015 return cannot be filed until 2016 the trustee cannot, of course, get the refund until you file the return. But once you do file it, the trustee may go after the pre-petition part of the refund. The best way to deal with that would have been to reduce your withholding and/or estimated taxes to eliminate any refund for the year (if possible) or at least reduce the refund as much as possible.