Under Chapter 7, individuals or businesses may file petitions which, in effect, ask the Bankruptcy court to sell off their holdings and pay their creditors out of the proceeds.   Typically, where debtor is an ordinary individual (and not a business), certain property is exempt from bankruptcy and saved from sale or liquidation in order to pay the creditors—:  a homestead, furnishings, wearing apparel, a car, IRA account, cash on hand, social security payments, veteran’s benefits, disability or unemployment benefits, alimony payments, etc.  In Georgia, the debtor can choose the exemptions provided under federal law or those provided under state law.   The other property of the debtor, however, is sold and the creditors paid out of the proceeds.  What usually happens in the case of individual debtors filing under Chapter 7, however, is those individuals get rid of all unsecured debt, credit cards, personal income taxes.  Some debts are not dischargeable however—school loans, certain taxes, domestic obligations, etc.   In the case of businesses filing under Chapter 7, those businesses must immediately close down.  None of the business assets are exempt, and the Trustee usually sells everything and pays the creditors out of the sales proceeds, if any.  Unlike Chapter 13, Co-debtors (such as co-signers), under Chapter 7  do not get the protection of  a stay (halting of collection action)  that is given to  the principal debtor.