trying to be fair

[SisterSavior]

What is the name of your state?alabama ....ok am trying to determine how much child support would be fair to my hub before i file the papers
he is a over the road truck drive he approx gross a week makes 2100 dollars after fuel .he does have break downs and maintanence and owes like 2k for truck repairs now and spends around 150 a week for food out on road etc plus he has all home and bills to pay ontop of that.....i will be making roughly 200 week gross and have looked at costs for what child care would be its 70 to 100 dollars depending on place rental would be around 400 a month misc bills like phone and water last year his taxes after all deductions from expences was around 24k mine was around 8k oh and we have 3 kids one being an infant

 

[stealth2]

You can calculate a CS estimate using the tools provided at http://www.divorceinfo.com/alchildsupportfiguring.htm ... Also, Lee has an AL-specific message board where he answers legal questions regarding AL divorce issues.

 

[haiku]

What is the name of your state?alabama ....ok am trying to determine how much child support would be fair to my hub before i file the papers
he is a over the road truck drive he approx gross a week makes 2100 dollars after fuel .he does have break downs and maintanence and owes like 2k for truck repairs now and spends around 150 a week for food out on road etc plus he has all home and bills to pay ontop of that.....i will be making roughly 200 week gross and have looked at costs for what child care would be its 70 to 100 dollars depending on place rental would be around 400 a month misc bills like phone and water last year his taxes after all deductions from expences was around 24k mine was around 8k oh and we have 3 kids one being an infant

I take it from your breakdown, he is an O/O?

child support would be figured, per your state guidelines, after all his business expenses were deducted. it would not be based on the 2100 a week or he would soon be out of business. the support would be based on his gross AFTER all his business expenses were deducted, if Alabama bases it on the gross.

I would recommend you at least consult with an attorney. It is well worth it in any matter involving children.

 

[SisterSavior]

yea hes an owner operater like i was saying last years taxes after all dedustions his share was roughly close to 24 k on income form truck and am wondering how they figure child supprt out by the last tax yr plus he has made .

 

[nextwife]

Are you figuring the cost of the rig itself in there anywhere? Insurance, registration fees.

Can't drive a truck if you don't continue to own one to drive. Even if it's F&C, the reponsible budgeting process, I believe, might be to maintain a capital replacement fund. Sooner or later the rig will be old.

 

[SisterSavior]

yea he owned the truck last year and all the maintence etc truck payments taxes tags ya know food money clothes was all included on deductions for taxes. thats what i am askin if we went by taxes last year which he was gonna do... was lookin roughly what was a fair child support for him to pay .

 

[SisterSavior]

ok i kinda roughly estiamted a months income after truck payment gas food cell bill,1500 truck repairs as i can see 400 for truck service 150 for food per weekand came up to a lil over 3000 left over so does this help any i looked at the web page and cannot figure it out lol or if you could tell me adddy to the lee page you was refering to .

 

[haiku]

The 3000 a week you mention is not what support will be based on, because if thats after expenses I want his job! LOL

OK, bottom line is the 24,000 he claimed last year to the irs (2003) is likely what your support will be based on.

At this point, by the time you get into court it will be 2005 and he will have to have his taxes ready anyway, so he at least will be ready with 2004 income becuase he is self employed he will likely have to show a few years of returns and an up to date profit and loss statement.

all the expenses everyone mentioned (but for the savings account..) are deductible as business expenses and should have been deducted to get to that 24,000 figure. the food costs mentioned are likely part of a "per diem" which is an amount of money you are allowed to deduct for food for every day you are on the road.

in trucking you start with gross earnings but these get reduced to adjusted gross income (AGI) some automatic ones are contributions to certain retirement plans, contributions to medical savings accounts, moving expenses, half of the self employment tax you paid through the year and a percentage of your health insurance premium. all of these do have special requirements.

deductions and expemtions further reduce your AGI.
Every trucking related purchase is deductible. fuel, right now being the 'biggie". The per diem for meals. also 50% of a business meal with a customer. business gifts. home office exmption. personal vehicle use for business purposes. parking fees. phone and utility costs. business related interest. motels. the entire payment for leased equipment. depreciation on equipment.
laundry expenses. truck wash. showers. newspapers.truck registration. tax prep. business organization dues. charity. tolls. repairs.office supplies. scale fees.lumper fees. bank fees. permits. truck parts. driver supplies.

now you have taxable income, from which any EIC and child tax credits can be done.

 

[stealth2]

Actually, all of those items may not be deductible for purposes of child support. During our mod, the judge specifically said that just because it is allowable by the IRS as a tax deduction does not mean it is an allowable deduction for the purposes of CS.

 

[haiku]

Actually, all of those items may not be deductible for purposes of child support. During our mod, the judge specifically said that just because it is allowable by the IRS as a tax deduction does not mean it is an allowable deduction for the purposes of CS.

true, our lawyer told us the same, but I would think that would be in cases of out and out fraud. And really frivolous deductions...(if this guy lives in a mansion, drives a hummer or 2, and vacations in aruba every summer on 24,000 a year for example) it has never been an issue in court for us, and believe me they do go over EVERY detail during financial discovery. Which is why the smart owner operator and self employed person would not go to court without his acountant.

most of them though are understandable parts of doing business as an owner operator. if child support was figured before quite a few of them that driver would be out of business.....

the point of the list was to familiarize the OP with what are deductible expenses and what she may be seeing on his expense sheet if she had never seen it before.