Posted to Soc but wanted others opinions as well....

[socrmomof3]

Are any of you expatriates living in a foreign country, paying CS in the States?

AND..if you are, do you get "foreign assignment allowances" and are they calculated in your CS amount?

My husband and I were transferred to Canada ealier this year and we get about $3k a month in housing, utility, food alliowances. This amount was calculated on my husband, myself, and my 3 kids living with us.

Well...now his ex wants to go back to court for a CS increase and our attorney told us the court WILL consider our ex-pat allowance as income. I disagree as this allowance is based on the family that lives here, not the step-kids, who live in Indiana.

Has anyone ever encountered this and how did you fight it?

We have paperwork from the company, showing the calculations.

Oh..and without the allowances (which basically go out the window to cover the increased housing costs, increased utility cotst, etc) my husband is only making $600 more a month---whcih is not even a 20% increase....so ex shouldn't even be entitled to a CS increase at all....

Thoughts?

[POC]

Not sure what "legal" justification there is for it, but here is a rationale that you could try:

The allowance is intended to cover expenses that are above what is considered ordinary if your family were to live in the states. Evidence of this being so is that the allowance is denied to those who are state side, and that it is only given to those stationed abroad. In no way could a child living state side be expected to benefit from an allowance that the government intends for only those who live abroad.

If the court were to consider any of the allowance as ordinary income of the husband it should factor the obligee's proportionate share of the family unit living abroad. In other words, the father is 1/5 of the family unit living abroad. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that $600 of the $3,000 allowance intended to help the family living abroad, is his propoartionate share. Clearly, the other $2,400 is intended to offset overseas expenses of other family members. To pay child support on any of that amount would be like paying child support on child support that is received on behalf of other children for which that same parent is custodial parent of.

This all acutally makes sense. If it is of no avail that would be why. Don't count on courts actaully applying common sense and logic to any family law ruling.