By Steve Harton
Child support in Wyoming is calculated using parents’ net incomes. Net income is calculated by subtracting some deductions from a parent’s gross income. In this post I will explain what is income for child support purposes.
Definition of income for child support
Income means any form of payment or return in money or in kind to an individual, regardless of source.
What is included in income?
Income includes all sorts of things. Some are obvious, some are not. Here are some examples:
- Wages
- Earnings
- Salary
- Commissions
- Tips
Workers compensation benefits are considered income. Payments for temporary total disability, permanent partial disability and permanent total disability.
- Unemployment compensation
- Disability payments
- Annuity payments
- Retirement benefits
- Any other payments made to a parent
Overtime can be considered income
Overtime is generally not considered in the income calculations. Unless a person has consistently earned overtime for the past two years. In that case the court can determine that overtime can be expected to continue in the future.
What is the income of self employed people?
Money you receive as an independent contractor is considered income. If you own a business, you are allowed to deduct all reasonable unreimbursed legitimate business expenses.
However, this is not the “net income” you report on your tax return. That’s because not all business expenses for tax purposes are expenses for child support calculations. A good example for this is depreciation.
Means tested benefits are not income for child support purposes
These are things like Pell grants, POWER payments, food stamps, and supplemental security income (SSI).
Potential income for child support purposes
This is income that is imputed for parents who are voluntarily unemployed or underemployed. This is why young, stay at home moms with few skills and/or work experienced are imputed minimum wage.
It also means that a parent cannot quit a well paying job and then take a minimum wage job to reduce his child support payments.
This is also why a person cannot just stop working overtime to reduce their income for child support purposes.
How can we help?
Here at WYeLawyers we can help you with calculating your income for child support. We can also help make sure that the other parent is reporting all of their income accurately. If you need help calculating income for child support, schedule an appointment by calling 307-382-5545.
Additional Resources
Net Income – Once you know your gross income, this post explains how to calculate net income for child support.