Please help, I am so terribly confused....

[mmmagique]

We are completely fine with an imputed income. Without any college education, we have been fine with equaling his income out with Mother's, as they live in the same town and both have a high school diploma. That income would be $29,900 yearly. We want it all to be fair, we don't want to cheat Mother, and going back to school and making no money at 27 years old wouldn't be fair.

At 29,900 per year, with a 34% Line 11 credit related to 50/50 time sharing, and each having one other child, CS would be $295 per month. That is fine.

~NurseMom

Wait...what?!! A step parent who wants to give the correct amount of support even if it makes it tougher on her family?!!
An ex who wants to be fair to his ex and child?!!
Where's the drama, the misery, the underhanded remarks?
This just isn't right...isn't right at all...

I agree that taking a job outside of the home may be unfeasable. (I work from home because it costs too much for child care as well) He may want to look into doing something from home, just to help out a bit.

 

[NurseMom]

Mmm, thank you all for your remarks and input. I feel a little better now. Future child support will be worked out between Mother, Father, and the attorneys. A big 'ol retroactive payday sounds possible, but difficult for Mother to attain, and that is really what I was hoping to find out.

What is frustrating to Father and myself is that we have never, never sought to prevent her from recieving fair support. Now we feel that Mother wants money that we had then and not now. If we had had a larger CS bill then, we would have budgeted differently. To want to take it out of our hide now is, well, inflammatory. We both, Father and I, struggle to remain reasonable and calm in the face of demands for thousands of dollars that we honestly never knew she was owed. Naive of us, but we are learning quickly.

In the end, it is just money, right? I think that Mother might view it as power, but really as long as Father and I continue to meet our bills and see the Child, then everything else will just work out in the wash.

Thank you again
~NurseMom

 

[LdiJ]

Mmm, thank you all for your remarks and input. I feel a little better now. Future child support will be worked out between Mother, Father, and the attorneys. A big 'ol retroactive payday sounds possible, but difficult for Mother to attain, and that is really what I was hoping to find out.

What is frustrating to Father and myself is that we have never, never sought to prevent her from recieving fair support. Now we feel that Mother wants money that we had then and not now. If we had had a larger CS bill then, we would have budgeted differently. To want to take it out of our hide now is, well, inflammatory. We both, Father and I, struggle to remain reasonable and calm in the face of demands for thousands of dollars that we honestly never knew she was owed. Naive of us, but we are learning quickly.

In the end, it is just money, right? I think that Mother might view it as power, but really as long as Father and I continue to meet our bills and see the Child, then everything else will just work out in the wash.

Thank you again
~NurseMom

She wasn't owed any extra money. Your husband was never required to pay more than the orders told him to pay.

I honestly don't see any chance of her receiving any retroactive child support beyond retroactive to the date that she filed the current motion to modify the support.

Even then, the court isn't going to order him to pay it off in one lump sum, nor will the court add hundreds to his monthly obligation either.

 

[CJane]

What you need to understand is that you guys arbitrarily saying "well, it'd be fair to say that Dad's income for CS purposes should be $29,900 because at some point in the past, that's what he was making isn't going to work.

I get that he's a returning military member, but he IS voluntarily unemployed after making more than $40K last year. It's VERY possible that the court/CSE will use something very close to that as his "imputed income".

 

[NurseMom]

CJane poses an interesting point, regarding "voluntary" unemployment after military service.

I know that in Missouri, for unemployment benefit purposes, completing a military contract and not re-signing is NOT considered voluntary unemployment. Is it considered voluntary unemployment for CS purposes? Does anyone know?

I would hope not because to be a Marine, we would have to live at an assigned station, far away from Child and extended family, with the reality that Father would be gone 6 months out of every 12-18 month period. In the face of that, I would hope that choosing to stay home with family and pursue other options after honorable service would not be considered "voluntary" unemployment, but I can sort of see the other side of the arguement as well. If anyone does know that true legal stance of Missouri on this issue, that would be interesting.

Also, the $29,900 figure is not based off of his past income, it is an imputation of what a high school graduate with no applicable job skills is able to earn in our area. We chose this figure because that is Mother's income and she is also a high school graduate with no further training. We were trying to arrive at a fair estimation of his earning potential in the job market today.

But that $29,900 is a random number, and the judge might see it as more or as less at a settlement conference. So far, both lawyers and the mediator seem to feel that that is a reasonable number for imputed income, but we will see.

Thanks,
~NurseMom

 

[CJane]

You're not understanding what voluntary unemployment means for child support purposes.

Dad getting out of the military isn't the issue. What IS the issue is that he's choosing to be a stay at home Dad and attend school full time rather than find employment. That not finding a NEW job is where the voluntary unemployment comes in.

I actually think that imputing $14/hour for someone with NO SKILLS is pretty good. Heck, I was making that not too long ago w/3 years experience in my field (but no degree).

I just think that you and Dad both need to be prepared for his imputed income to be higher if him and mom do not come to an agreement because his VERY recent income was so much higher than that, and he chose to leave it behind AFTER the modification was started. Because child support goes back to date of filing, it's VERY possible that they'll use the income he had THEN.

I'm in the middle of a mod right now. If my son's father quits his job/gets fired/whatever between now and our hearing in February, the CSE guys aren't going to say "Gee, we set CS based on what you were earning when the mod was filed, but you're clearly broke NOW, so we'll lower it."

Doesn't work that way.

 

[Proserpina]

You're not understanding what voluntary unemployment means for child support purposes.

Dad getting out of the military isn't the issue. What IS the issue is that he's choosing to be a stay at home Dad and attend school full time rather than find employment. That not finding a NEW job is where the voluntary unemployment comes in.

I actually think that imputing $14/hour for someone with NO SKILLS is pretty good. Heck, I was making that not too long ago w/3 years experience in my field (but no degree).

I just think that you and Dad both need to be prepared for his imputed income to be higher if him and mom do not come to an agreement because his VERY recent income was so much higher than that, and he chose to leave it behind AFTER the modification was started. Because child support goes back to date of filing, it's VERY possible that they'll use the income he had THEN.

I'm in the middle of a mod right now. If my son's father quits his job/gets fired/whatever between now and our hearing in February, the CSE guys aren't going to say "Gee, we set CS based on what you were earning when the mod was filed, but you're clearly broke NOW, so we'll lower it."

Doesn't work that way.

That would seem to be the crux of the matter. I'm in agreement, CJane but I've also seen - on these boards - that going to school full time after military discharge is not necessarily considered voluntary under- or un-employment.

 

[CJane]

That would seem to be the crux of the matter. I'm in agreement, CJane but I've also seen - on these boards - that going to school full time after military discharge is not necessarily considered voluntary under- or un-employment.

Really, in MO at least, everything depends on who's doing the determining.

If MOM is willing to accept whatever the child support amount is when based on $29,900 and a judge is willing to sign off on it, it's going to go through.

If MOM isn't willing to accept it, and it goes before a judge, the judge will have some leeway to determine whether this is considered voluntary underemployment or not. Either way, a wage will be imputed because it HAS to be and the judge will MOST LIKELY base it upon the 6 most recent pay stubs.