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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    Jacksonville, Florida
    Posts
    27

    Post Imputing Income

    My question involves child support in the State of: Florida

    First I will fill you in with my situation. After our separation my wife moved in with family two hours north of here with my son. I then let her move back in (no intimate contact and not living as a family) in order for her to look for employment here so I could be closer to my son. She did not look for a job for several weeks so I asked her to leave at which time she moved back in with family a couple hours north. She then did not look for a job and instead decided to go back to school (she currently has an associates degree and is pursuing a bachelors) full time, not just taking 4 classes per semester but 5 at a time. She found temporary employment in the form of work-study at the university for 6 hours per week at minimum wage but she has now informed me the amount allotted to fund her work study has been depleted so she is once again no longer working. I have continued to pay her cell phone, car insurance, $500 car payment on a $30k Malibu LTZ, maintenance on the car including oil changes and all (she drives a lot to see her boyfriend who lives 4 hours away), and I have been paying her $500 child support, even though it has not yet been ordered by the court. I also pay all the credit card bills we incurred while married. I only make $35k per year so this is only leaving me with $15-20 after each pay check but I want my son to have what he needs.

    Now my question. When I filed my petition for dissolution of marriage I included a child support guidelines worksheet. On it I had my spouse as earning no income and I filed a motion to deviate from the guidelines. I have recently heard of imputing income and am wondering if I should do this somehow and file an updated child support work sheet, or if the court will handle all that in our hearing with the magistrate next month. If it is something I can do, do I just put in minimum wage at 40 hours per week?

    Thanks in advance for your advice.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    Behind a Desk
    Posts
    98,846

    Default Re: Imputing Income

    Quote Quoting Florida Statutes, Sec. [SIZE=-1
    61.29. Child support guidelines; principles.]The following principles establish the public policy of the State of Florida in the creation of the child support guidelines:
    (1) Each parent has a fundamental obligation to support his or her minor or legally dependent child.


    (2) The guidelines schedule is based on the parent’s combined net income estimated to have been allocated to the child as if the parents and children were living in an intact household.


    (3) The guidelines encourage fair and efficient settlement of support issues between parents and minimizes the need for litigation.
    [/SIZE]

    Part of getting a court to impute income is to convince the court that the other parent's unemployment or underemployment is voluntary. We don't know what arrangement you had with your wife during the marriage - was she working or not working, with what understanding going forward? We don't know when she came up with the plan to attend college, or whether you approved that plan before you separated. All of that, and potentially more, factors into whether or not a court might impute income. Also, you have to be careful about doing something that will force her out of college and, while perhaps reducing your child support (most likely modestly) in the short-term might cause it to be significantly higher than it would be for years to come if she graduates and gets a well-paying job.

    If you want to try to ask the court to impute income, you will need evidence of her job skills and what amount of income she might earn if she returned to the job market. If she was working during your marriage, the wages she earned and number of hours she worked would be pretty indicative of her earning capacity. Recall that we're in a lousy job market, and the court may take that into consideration.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    Jacksonville, Florida
    Posts
    27

    Default Re: Imputing Income

    Thanks for your help. In the marital settlement agreement we agreed to $507 per month which was figured on the child support work sheet with her making minimum wage. The worksheet we filed using the actual income figures showed me paying $1063 per month so there is quite a difference. I am just getting nervous with the hearing date approaching, as I have heard of the court ordering something other than what the parties agreed upon in the settlement agreement.

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