Michelle Drumbl Publishes Article in the Temple Law Review The article examines state legislation and case law from U.S. bankruptcy courts to explore protections for debtors who are entitled to refundable tax credits.

By Law Communications
January 15, 2026

Washington and Lee law professor Michelle Drumbl has published an article in the Temple Law Review. The article, “Poverty, Fresh Starts, and the Social Safety Net,” examines the intersection of Chapter 7 bankruptcy and tax-based social benefits.

“For decades, low-income families have relied on the filing of individual income tax returns to claim critical social welfare benefits in the form of refundable tax credits, most notably the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit,” writes Professor Drumbl. “But what happens to those families when the social safety net is not enough to meet their financial obligations, and they must seek a fresh start by filing for bankruptcy?”

Professor Drumbl notes that there is no federal bankruptcy exemption available to protect a debtor’s entitlement to refundable tax credits and argues that “the split over whether states provide such an exemption or not results in inconsistency across the country depending on where a debtor resides.” In many jurisdictions, an individual seeking a fresh start through bankruptcy must forfeit these social benefits in the liquidation, perpetuating the cycle of poverty.

Professor Drumbl uses state exemption statutes and caselaw from U.S. bankruptcy courts as a lens through which to assess how legislatures and judges perceive tax-based social welfare. Specifically, she explores bankruptcy law’s frequent framing of refundable credits as public assistance, which is curiously distinct from tax law’s framing of these credits. Her article makes the normative case for providing robust protection for refundable tax credits in bankruptcy, which would better allow an impoverished debtor to pursue a fresh start.

The full article is available online in the W&L Scholarly Commons.

Professor Drumbl is the Robert O. Bentley Professor of Law and currently serves as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. Her teaching and research interests focus on the federal income taxation of individuals, tax procedure, and tax policy. She is also the founding Director of the Tax Clinic, in which students provide pro bono representation to low-income taxpayers who have post-filing controversies with the Internal Revenue Service. Professor Drumbl’s scholarship focuses on the intersection of low-income taxpayers and fiscal policy, exploring such issues as refundable tax credits, filing status, innocent spouse relief, and return preparer fraud.

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