Bankruptcy exemptions in Massachusetts: what you can keep

The Massachusetts exemption list, the homestead rule, which state's law applies and how to claim exemptions.

Checked against official sources: October 25, 2026.

Short answer

In Massachusetts you choose state or federal exemptions (exemptions are the property the law lets you keep). Your home (homestead): automatic homestead: $125,000 with no paperwork.

Exemption system: State or federal, your choice
Car or other vehicle: Up to $7,500 in wholesale resale value in a car needed for personal transportation or work.
Wildcard (any property): $1,000 in any personal property, plus up to $5,000 of any unused amount of the household furniture, tools of trade and car exemptions.
Amounts: Statute text on malegislature.gov, read October 2026. The declared homestead amount became $1,000,000 on August 6, 2024 (Acts 2024, c.

The Massachusetts exemption list

Exemptions are the property the law lets you keep. You pick one whole set: the Massachusetts list or the federal list. You can't mix them.

Law: 11 U.S.C. 522(b)(1)-(2); 11 U.S.C. 522(d)

What	Massachusetts exemption	Federal exemption
Home (homestead)	Automatic homestead: $125,000 with no paperwork. Declared homestead: $1,000,000 if you sign and record a homestead declaration at the registry of deeds before you file. If the home is owned as joint tenants or tenants by the entirety (for example, a married couple), the $125,000 or $1,000,000 is one amount for the home, not per person. Owners who are 62 or older, or disabled, can each record their own elderly/disabled declaration; each such owner gets up to $1,000,000. For joint tenants or tenants by the entirety, the total is then $1,000,000 for each elderly/disabled declaration plus $250,000. Spouses living in separate homes share one exemption. The home can be a 1-4 family house, condo, manufactured home or co-op unit. The homestead does not protect against taxes, liens or mortgages recorded before the homestead, or court-ordered support. Law: G.L. c. 188, s. 2; Mass. Gen. Laws c. 188, ss. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5	$31,575 Law: 11 U.S.C. 522(d)(1)
Car or other vehicle	Up to $7,500 in wholesale resale value in a car needed for personal transportation or work. Up to $15,000 if you are handicapped or 60 or older. Law: Mass. Gen. Laws c. 235, s. 34 (Sixteenth)	$5,025 Law: 11 U.S.C. 522(d)(2)
Household goods and clothing	Necessary clothing, beds and bedding, one heating unit, stove, refrigerator, freezer and hot water heater; other necessary household furniture up to $15,000; one computer and one television in use; jewelry up to $1,225; bibles, schoolbooks and library up to $500. Law: Mass. Gen. Laws c. 235, s. 34 (First, Second, Third, Twelfth, Eighteenth)	Household goods: $800 per item, $16,850 total Jewelry for personal or family use: $2,125 Law: 11 U.S.C. 522(d)(3); 11 U.S.C. 522(d)(4)
Wildcard (any property)	$1,000 in any personal property, plus up to $5,000 of any unused amount of the household furniture, tools of trade and car exemptions. Law: Mass. Gen. Laws c. 235, s. 34 (Seventeenth)	$1,675 plus up to $15,800 of any unused part of the (d)(1) homestead amount Law: 11 U.S.C. 522(d)(5)
Tools of your trade	Up to $5,000 in tools, implements and fixtures for your trade or business, plus up to $5,000 in materials and stock for it. Law: Mass. Gen. Laws c. 235, s. 34 (Fifth, Sixth)	$3,175 Law: 11 U.S.C. 522(d)(6)
Wages	The greater of 85% of your gross wages, or 50 times the higher of the federal or Massachusetts hourly minimum wage, for each week. Law: Mass. Gen. Laws c. 235, s. 34 (Fifteenth)	—
Retirement accounts	ERISA plans, Keogh plans, 401(a) plans, SEPs, 403(b) plans, IRAs, and annuities bought with money from these plans are protected, except for divorce, separate maintenance or child support orders, and criminal restitution or penalties. For IRAs and other plans kept by an individual, money put in during the 5 years before bankruptcy that is more than 7% of your total income for that period is not protected by this state rule (rollovers do not count). Law: Mass. Gen. Laws c. 235, s. 34A	No dollar limit (IRAs are capped under 522(n)) Money in traditional and Roth IRAs is protected up to $1,711,975 in total. Law: 11 U.S.C. 522(d)(12); 11 U.S.C. 522(n); 90 FR 8941
Public benefits	The full amount owed or paid to you as public assistance is protected. Law: Mass. Gen. Laws c. 235, s. 34 (Fifteenth)	Your right to receive Social Security, unemployment, public assistance, veterans' and disability benefits; alimony and support you reasonably need; and certain pension or annuity payments you reasonably need: No dollar limit (some only as much as you reasonably need) Your right to certain payments: crime victim awards, wrongful-death and life-insurance payments for someone you depended on, personal bodily injury payments (not pain and suffering or actual money losses), and payments for lost future earnings: Crime-victim awards: no limit. Personal injury payment: up to $31,575. Others: as much as you reasonably need Law: 11 U.S.C. 522(d)(10); 11 U.S.C. 522(d)(11)
Other exemptions	$2,500 in cash, savings or other bank or investment deposits. If you rent: up to $2,500 per month needed to pay rent, in place of a homestead. Up to $500 per month needed for heat, fuel, water, hot water and light. Food and provisions for your family, or money for them, up to $600. Law: Mass. Gen. Laws c. 235, s. 34, Fifteenth; Mass. Gen. Laws c. 235, s. 34, Fourteenth; Mass. Gen. Laws c. 235, s. 34, First; Mass. Gen. Laws c. 235, s. 34, Seventh	An unmatured life insurance policy you own (not credit life insurance): No dollar limit Cash value of life insurance: $16,850 Health aids prescribed by a professional for you or a dependent: No dollar limit Law: 11 U.S.C. 522(d)(7); 11 U.S.C. 522(d)(8); 11 U.S.C. 522(d)(9)

Federal limit on a newly bought home

If you use your state's exemptions, you can protect no more than $214,000 of home equity that you acquired in the 1,215 days (about 3 years and 4 months) before you filed. Equity moved from an earlier home in the same state, bought before that period, does not count. The cap does not apply to a family farmer's main home.

Law: 11 U.S.C. 522(p); 90 FR 8941

Amounts: Statute text on malegislature.gov, read October 2026. The declared homestead amount became $1,000,000 on August 6, 2024 (Acts 2024, c. 150, s. 51). Massachusetts amounts are not indexed.

Federal amounts: Amounts in effect for cases filed on or after April 1, 2025 (next automatic adjustment due April 1, 2028)

Law: 11 U.S.C. 104; 90 FR 8941-8942

These amounts are per person. If a married couple files one joint case, each spouse can claim the federal exemptions separately.

Keeping your home in Massachusetts

Automatic homestead: $125,000 with no paperwork. Declared homestead: $1,000,000 if you sign and record a homestead declaration at the registry of deeds before you file.

If the home is owned as joint tenants or tenants by the entirety (for example, a married couple), the $125,000 or $1,000,000 is one amount for the home, not per person. Owners who are 62 or older, or disabled, can each record their own elderly/disabled declaration; each such owner gets up to $1,000,000. For joint tenants or tenants by the entirety, the total is then $1,000,000 for each elderly/disabled declaration plus $250,000. Spouses living in separate homes share one exemption. The home can be a 1-4 family house, condo, manufactured home or co-op unit. The homestead does not protect against taxes, liens or mortgages recorded before the homestead, or court-ordered support.

Law: G.L. c. 188, s. 2

Law: Mass. Gen. Laws c. 188, ss. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Federal limit on a newly bought home

Law: 11 U.S.C. 522(p); 90 FR 8941

Retirement money

ERISA plans, Keogh plans, 401(a) plans, SEPs, 403(b) plans, IRAs, and annuities bought with money from these plans are protected, except for divorce, separate maintenance or child support orders, and criminal restitution or penalties. For IRAs and other plans kept by an individual, money put in during the 5 years before bankruptcy that is more than 7% of your total income for that period is not protected by this state rule (rollovers do not count).

Law: Mass. Gen. Laws c. 235, s. 34A

Retirement money in tax-exempt accounts is protected whichever set of exemptions you use (IRAs subject to the 522(n) cap).

Law: 11 U.S.C. 522(b)(3)(C), 522(d)(12), 522(n)

What changed in 2024–2026 in Massachusetts

The declared homestead exemption rose from $500,000 to $1,000,000, effective August 6, 2024 (Acts 2024, c. 150, s. 51, the Affordable Homes Act). Declarations recorded before that date get the higher amount without refiling.

Which state's law applies

You use the exemption law of the state where you lived (your domicile) for the full 730 days (2 years) before you filed. If you moved between states during those 2 years, you use the law of the state where you lived for the 180 days before that 2-year period, or where you lived the longest part of those 180 days.

Law: 11 U.S.C. 522(b)(3)(A)

If this rule leaves you with no exemptions at all (for example, the state's exemptions apply only to its residents and you no longer live there), you can use the federal exemptions instead.

Law: 11 U.S.C. 522(b)(3), flush language

How the choice works in Massachusetts

In some states you can choose either the state exemptions or the federal exemptions. You must pick one whole set; you cannot mix them. Other states allow only the state exemptions. A married couple filing together must both pick the same set.

Law: 11 U.S.C. 522(b)(1)-(2); 11 U.S.C. 522(d)

In nearby states

Rhode Island: State or federal, your choice. Home (homestead): $500,000 in the home that you live in or intend to live in as your principal residence.
Connecticut: State or federal, your choice. Home (homestead): $250,000 of equity in your homestead (owner-occupied home, co-op or mobile manufactured home used as your primary residence), per person claiming it.
Vermont: State or federal, your choice. Home (homestead): up to $125,000 in value: your home, outbuildings and the land used with it, that you own and use or keep as your homestead.
New York: State or federal, your choice. Home (homestead): depends on the county where the home is: from $102,400 to $204,825.

Steps to protect what you can in Massachusetts

Make a property list
Every item of property goes on Official Form 106A/B.
Check the exemption list
The table above shows the Massachusetts amount for each kind of property.
Fill in Schedule C
You claim exemptions on Official Form 106C.
Ask for free help
Legal aid can help for free: Volunteer Lawyers Project of the Boston Bar Association and Community Legal Aid (Central and Western Massachusetts).

Where to get free help in Massachusetts

Questions about exemptions in Massachusetts

State or federal exemptions in Massachusetts?

You can. Massachusetts lets you choose the state exemptions or the federal exemptions in 11 U.S.C. 522(d). You must pick one whole set.

What is the homestead exemption in Massachusetts?

Automatic homestead: $125,000 with no paperwork. Declared homestead: $1,000,000 if you sign and record a homestead declaration at the registry of deeds before you file.

How much of a car can I keep in bankruptcy in Massachusetts?

Up to $7,500 in wholesale resale value in a car needed for personal transportation or work. Up to $15,000 if you are handicapped or 60 or older.

Does Massachusetts have a wildcard exemption?

$1,000 in any personal property, plus up to $5,000 of any unused amount of the household furniture, tools of trade and car exemptions.

Are furniture and clothes exempt in Massachusetts?

Necessary clothing, beds and bedding, one heating unit, stove, refrigerator, freezer and hot water heater; other necessary household furniture up to $15,000; one computer and one television in use; jewelry up to $1,225; bibles, schoolbooks and library up to $500.

What happens to retirement money in Massachusetts?

Are my wages protected in Massachusetts?

The greater of 85% of your gross wages, or 50 times the higher of the federal or Massachusetts hourly minimum wage, for each week.