Child support wage reporting.

[jen0610]

I think our payroll manager goofed up.

We had a request come in to show what one of our drivers makes. He is on one of the dedicated runs, so he does the same thing every week. The only difference is, there are some weeks with zero over time, other weeks with very little over time and other weeks with lots of over time.

When the manager sent in the info, he just pulled a report that showed what he had made in total for the year. The two of us who actually do the payroll, said that he should have only sent in what he actually makes, based on his 45 hour work week. The over time he makes is not a set amount.

Because of the manger sending in the total amount he made, the courts raised his child support by $178.00 a week. That is raised it by, not raised it to. I just about fell outta my seat, when we got the papers from the courts on the new child support amount.

Does anybody know if the OT pay should have been included or not. I tried to look it up, but I couldn't find anything - I could be looking right over it though. And I do know, that it will change from state to state.

 

[Polyluvr]

In NY overtime is not included in the calculation; just a straight 40 hr work week. Sounds like someone made an awful mistake~ and this is coming from a Mom who is owed 15000+ in back child support and as a step-mom whose husband pays out a ton of child support.

Here it's calculated based on hourly pay or straight salary.

 

[Tinker'n'Fun]

I think our payroll manager goofed up.

We had a request come in to show what one of our drivers makes. He is on one of the dedicated runs, so he does the same thing every week. The only difference is, there are some weeks with zero over time, other weeks with very little over time and other weeks with lots of over time.

When the manager sent in the info, he just pulled a report that showed what he had made in total for the year. The two of us who actually do the payroll, said that he should have only sent in what he actually makes, based on his 45 hour work week. The over time he makes is not a set amount.

Because of the manger sending in the total amount he made, the courts raised his child support by $178.00 a week. That is raised it by, not raised it to. I just about fell outta my seat, when we got the papers from the courts on the new child support amount.

Does anybody know if the OT pay should have been included or not. I tried to look it up, but I couldn't find anything - I could be looking right over it though. And I do know, that it will change from state to state.

I worked in the acct. dept of a moving company and our guys were paying based on the yearly income also. It sucked for them since the nature of the business is definitely up and down, but seriously the summer months they made tons and tons of money and during the winter months they just went down and filed with their unemployment checks to get it lowered. We would have to report to CS once a driver was working again over a certain amount of hours. If he does work year round at a base salary, I would tell him to file with the courts. Not one of our drivers could have qualified as a full-time route and not claim their total income. Hope it helps.

Since driving is more like a seasonal position hopefully someone else can help. If in your state it is not required to send in yearly income, then the driver should just go down and put in a request for change.

 

[Darcy03231]

In our state overtime is counted as part of child support.

 

[Hannathy]

I'm curious as to why you think he shouldn't pay based on what he actually made? He was paid that amount and his child has that amount coming to them. why should that money not count?

 

[Polyluvr]

I'm curious as to why you think he shouldn't pay based on what he actually made? He was paid that amount and his child has that amount coming to them. why should that money not count?

I don't see it that way; and neither does the state of NY~ overtime can't be relied upon because it's not guaranteed.

 

[DisneyBamaFan]

I'm curious as to why you think he shouldn't pay based on what he actually made? He was paid that amount and his child has that amount coming to them. why should that money not count?

Overtime is variable. Unless it is guaranteed with a position, most states do not allow it to be considered. Reason - a person's income could be 25% lower in a month with no overtime, but the child support would not go down in that month to compensate. Result - the parent making the child support payments cannot pay for basic necessities in that month.

 

[Chelley00]

I do payroll in Indiana, where the OP lives, and overtime, commission, bonuses can all be included in child support calculation in our state. You can appeal if the overtime was a one time thing or is seasonal and not weekly. When I have to do fill out paperwork for someone, I have to include all wages paid so OP, you payroll manager did exactly what they should have.

 

[DisneyBamaFan]

I do payroll in Indiana, where the OP lives, and overtime, commission, bonuses can all be included in child support calculation in our state. You can appeal if the overtime was a one time thing or is seasonal and not weekly. When I have to do fill out paperwork for someone, I have to include all wages paid so OP, you payroll manager did exactly what they should have.

Wow! How easy is it to get the child support amount reduced if there is no bonus or overtime forthcoming?

 

[GAGirlInVA]

Each state is going to be different but my ex-h's child support was set by his 1040 from the year before and the fact that he has an older daughter (that isn't mine) that he was paying child support for.

So yes, all income counted-- well all income that he claimed. That is whole 'nother ball o' wax!

Not sure if this is the same now, I haven't had my child support amount reviewed although I know it will go up. I wish I never fought for it at all. He has nothing to do with her but now I have to go back through the courts to see if my husband can adopt her.

 

[figment52]

In our state overtime is counted as part of child support.

mine too

 

[tvguy]

Wow! How easy is it to get the child support amount reduced if there is no bonus or overtime forthcoming?

I suspect in most states it would involve another court hearing and you proving your income went down and hoping the Judge agrees.

Not sure it really matter, most Judges consider child support a fixed cost just like your rent/mortgage and car payment. Those don't go down if you income goes down.

I have a friend who is fighting now because the Judge based child support on her ex-husbands hourly wage....minimum wage......but he is a commissioned sales man. They excluded commissions as income.
Not that it matters, since he hasn't paid even that small amount in 6 months, and his employer is fighting the garnishment order in court.

 

[mamacatnv]

I fill out wage requests frequently for states all over the county. There are only 2 categories to report, gross earnings and tips. All the wage reports I have seen from various states are broken into monthly increments for the 12 previous months. The wage requests also ask for the hourly wage.

 

[DisneyBamaFan]

I suspect in most states it would involve another court hearing and you proving your income went down and hoping the Judge agrees.

Not sure it really matter, most Judges consider child support a fixed cost just like your rent/mortgage and car payment. Those don't go down if you income goes down.

I have a friend who is fighting now because the Judge based child support on her ex-husbands hourly wage....minimum wage......but he is a commissioned sales man. They excluded commissions as income.
Not that it matters, since he hasn't paid even that small amount in 6 months, and his employer is fighting the garnishment order in court.

I have two friends (well, one is somewhat less than a friend) who gave up promising careers because of absurd child support demands made by idiotic judges. One was a firefighter, who worked a huge amount of overtime in one year while they saved to buy their home. Well, they get divorced, and the judge uses the huge earnings year to base his child support. They had a single child - child support payment was over $1800/mo.

The judge would not reduce it, even after two years of standard pay proved that his income was not the same as the year with all the overtime. He was now completely broke, so he walked away. I couldn't blame him. He just packed his bags and left. His greedy wife still complains about it, but she (and the idiotic judge) were the cause. Seriously, who needs $1800/mo in child support for a healthy child? He was a firefighter, not a stock broker.

 

[bdoyledimou]

Here in Canada we have Federal Guidelines... but even they ARE guidelines..

In my situation, i pay $20,000 a year in child support for my two kids, plus another $5500 a year in "extracurricular" costs. I have my kids 50% of the time, so it "should" be a reduced amount, but it isn't.

Note that here, the payment is tax free to their mother, I pay the taxes on the child support, but she gets to claim the deductions on her taxes..

 

[GAGirlInVA]

Note that here, the payment is tax free to their mother, I pay the taxes on the child support, but she gets to claim the deductions on her taxes..

Same in the states. But the $50 a week I get for my daughter wouldn't really affect our taxes anyhow.

 

[sparklynails23]

I have two friends (well, one is somewhat less than a friend) who gave up promising careers because of absurd child support demands made by idiotic judges. One was a firefighter, who worked a huge amount of overtime in one year while they saved to buy their home. Well, they get divorced, and the judge uses the huge earnings year to base his child support. They had a single child - child support payment was over $1800/mo.

The judge would not reduce it, even after two years of standard pay proved that his income was not the same as the year with all the overtime. He was now completely broke, so he walked away. I couldn't blame him. He just packed his bags and left. His greedy wife still complains about it, but she (and the idiotic judge) were the cause. Seriously, who needs $1800/mo in child support for a healthy child? He was a firefighter, not a stock broker.

Seriously? You don't think it costs $1800 a month to house, feed, clothe, and educate a child? Don't forget childcare for after school or weekends, depending on mom's job. Do you really live in New Jersey?

 

[heartsy77]

My experience in NY state is they don't care if overtime is random or the normal, they average out your pay by weeks in a year.

My Dh paid child support for 15 years and the court ALWAYS averaged up pay YTD and divided. We brought in letters from his boss stating that OT was seasonal and not guaranteed and it still didn't matter.

 

[ajk912]

Seriously? You don't think it costs $1800 a month to house, feed, clothe, and educate a child? Don't forget childcare for after school or weekends, depending on mom's job. Do you really live in New Jersey?

I would think it would be 50/50- if dad is expected to shell out $1800 per kid to support the kid, then mom should be too. That's over $21,000 a year. Don't forget that you can attend public school for very low cost. A child's part of utilities and rent is minimal- going from a one bedroom apartment to a two bedroom apartment/house shouldn't be more than an additional $300 or so a month on top of expenses that the mom would be making anyway to support herself. Unless the kid is an infant/toddler, daycare should be attainable for $175 or so a week or less. A kid costs what, MAYBE $50 a week to feed? So my math adds up to about $1200 a month for reasonable child expenses. That leaves $600 for extra stuff such as dance lessons, clothes, etc. I can see why a dad could get fed up and say that's too much. It sounds someone expects the dad to 100% support the child instead of it being a 50/50 split where the mom supports the child too. I can see $900 being justified for child support but $1800? Yikes, I don't fault the guy either for his decision if the mom wants to be that greedy. Cases like this make you almost side with the dead-beat dad. $1800..wow, that's more than my mortgage and car payment COMBINED!!! How can anyone support themselves with that kind of payment? The poster is right, you'd have to be a well paid stock broker.

 

[sparklynails23]

For New Jersey, your estimates are way too low, especially the food, and apparently the court thought the dad could pay on that salary. What about health care, and transportation, and utilities, too? Maybe the family was a one income household until the dad left. Maybe the mom was looking for a job. Maybe the guy made $100k with his OT, and the $21k seemed reasonable. Maybe the woman was forced to live close to the dad. Lots of possibilities. I don't think it's that much.