Child support income considerations; what can not be considered as income?

[medic1567]

I am a private contract health care worker, working in Afghnaistan. I have just finished my 1 year comiment and have extended till December. My Ex-wive pettitioned for child support modification last December and our hearing was in March. She was asking for all of my pay to be considered in the determination of child support. I am given $3250 base per month. I get Hazard duty and sepration pay, under the US military guidlines which equals an uplift of 75%. I am here because of the tax benifit, $86,000 tax free if I stay in country for 330 days or more, which i had. The company I contracted with has told me that my "uplift" pay was not subject to consideration and told me to refer to my contract which only guarentes me 40 hours a week, even thou we work 7 days a week, 12 hours per day. That equals out to be around $18.50 per hour. Is there a law, statute or anything in writting that clearly states that our hazard and foriegn service pay is to be excluded for child support consideration? Modification has been completed and they did in fact use my entire pay for calculating my child support and increased it my $700 per month. Plus, I now owe back support of over $4000. My attorney has started the appeal process but has no idea what i am talking about regarding the service members act, the 9/11 exclusion act and so on and tsked ME with finding where the laws were to assist him and I am doing all of this from Afghanistan. I am in need of something because I do know that these statutes and laws exsist because other private contractors have been down this path and had good attorneys that found the loop holes for them. If there is nothing then I will pack my bags and go home tomorrow because it just is not worth it anymore, to have my income disected and divided up like my ex wife just won the lotto while I am in a dangerous enviroment being mortored, rocketed and shoot at everyday standing beside active duty military wearing the same ID as they do. Please help, I finally dug myself out of a hole and am comfortable and very upset it is being taken away from me by the State of SD.

[Momfortwo]

Your company does not know the law or what counts as income for child support purposes.   All of your income counts.  Not just the base pay. 

An example is:  I get a bonus at my job that I have been at for 2 years.  It's not guaranteed.  But it still counts as income.  Since I am the CP (I live in an income share state), the courts are going to take the average over the last 3 years.   

Another example is my ex:  He quit a job that made more than the job he took.  The pay at the new job was more than the base pay at the old job.  But because the pay was less than what he was paid overall at the old job (he got a shift deferential for working nights) and because he knowingly took the job with less overall pay, he ended up with imputed income.  He tried using your argument.  The courts didn't buy it.  Especially given that he was working at the old job for over 6 years.

You are not going to win your appeal unless you can show that there was an error in the calculation.  Which you can't as they correctly used all of your income.   Look up the child support guidelines in the state that has jurisdiction, it will clearly tell you what counts as income.  And one of the things that count is ALL compensation for doing a job.  You aren't going to be able to exclude any of your compensation from your job.

[Kitty C.]

You need to have your atty. check the statutes regarding OT pay.  Here is IA, OT pay CANNOT be considered in CS unless it is mandatory.  Reason being, they cannot calculate current CS on future earnings that is variable.  If your atty. here cannot find the information needed, he's incompetant.  You might want to talk to those private contractors who had knowledgeable attys., get the attys. names and then tell your atty. to contact them.

If your hazard pay is a one time deal, I cannot see how they can calculate it into future CS, because once you receive it, you won't get it again.  I can't see how they can base future CS on earnings that you will not have.

[MixedBag]

your answer is in YOUR states statutes as Kitty states.....in OH overtime can be included for example.

[Momfortwo]

I went and looked up your state's child support guidelines. 

You aren't going to win your appeal because the child support was calculated correctly. 

While South Dakota does state that overtime can be excluded if it isn't regular, yours is regular.   Therefore, is included.

The Hazard and separation pay counts for as long as you get it.  Once you leave Afghanistan and no longer receive either, you can file for a modification based on a change of circumstances.  And since South Dakota uses net income in their calculations, the tax free $86K increases your net income, which will increase your child support. 

Your employer isn't a family law practitioner and gave you inaccurate information.  Which is why your attorney, who is a family law practitioner, has never heard of it. 

[MrCustodyCoach]

The court has the ability to count whatever they want regardless of what the guidelines say.  And it's a disgrace.  They'll squeeze every last dollar that they can out of you to maximize their own financial benefit, so when the judges and states claim it's "in the best interests of the children" - don't you believe it.  It's in the best interests of the states to do what they do, first and foremost.

I wouldn't be surprised if they imputed your income for your hazard pay and separation pay because you "voluntarily" returned from a war zone.