As a proficient New Jersey Child Support Attorney, I get questions all the time from clients regarding if overtime will affect what goes into child support. A question that comes up from time to time is what income is truly used to calculate child support. For instance, you may have a parent who works a significant amount of overtime throughout the year and then asks, “Do we use my base salary or do we use my salary plus my overtime?” Likewise, someone that’s commission based or someone that receives a bonus or perhaps you have a parent whose company gives them a company car and then on their W-2 you’ll see the money coming back to them for the car. All of those things factor into what income the court is truly going to use to calculate child support. The same holds true for someone who owns a business. I can own a business and make $100,000 in the year and that’s what I gross. By the time I take out all my expenses I show $20,000. Will the court truly use that $20,000? No, the court is going to look through the business expenses and there will be certain things that are added back in for the purposes of calculating child support. It’s an intricate process. It’s something to discuss with an attorney to figure out exactly what portions of your income truly count toward child support.
Are you concerned about overtime effecting your child support payments? Contact our professional New Jersey Child Support Attorney for advice.
This educational blog was brought to you by Tanya Freeman, an experienced New Jersey Child Support Attorney.