Income for New Mexico Child Support - Overview
Page One of this "Income Section" relates to the Child Support Statutes in place and also a parent's obligation to maximize their income for the benefit of the child(ren). Page Two examines some of the issues concerning the income a self employed individual or small business owner. This page also has information about a person's income when they are obligated to support other children. Page Three addresses how a person actually calculates their income from a tax returns, paystubs and the like. It also discusses the sometimes, de-facto guaranteeing of an individual's income in a child support situation. Page Four addresses some miscellaneous income rulings of the New Mexico Courts.
- Overview
- Page One - Child Support Statutes and Full-Employment
- Page Two - Self Employed Individuals and Deductions From Income
- Page Three - Calculating Income and Guaranteeing Income
- Page Four - Miscellaneous Income Rulings
Actual Calculation of Monthly Income
If you are paid every two weeks, then you are paid 26 times a year (52 weeks in a year). For you to calculate your monthly income you need to take one paycheck stub and multiply it by 26 to make it an annual figure. You would then divide it by 12 to make it a monthly figure.
If you are paid twice a month, you would take one paycheck stub and multiply it by 24 to make it an annual figure. Again, you then divide by the 12 to accomplish a monthly figure.
Another way to calculate monthly income for hourly wage earners is to take your hourly rate and multiply it by 40 to make it a weekly figure. You then multiply it by 4.33 week. (52 weeks in 12 months = 4.33 weeks in a month).
In Albuquerque, they generally use one of the above methods, and do not simply rely on last year’s tax returns. For people using the paystub methods, they generally will average four or five of your most recent ones to make sure variations from check to check are accounted for in the final calculation. They will also sometimes use the Monthly year to date information on your paystub.
Guaranteeing Your Income
When someone is paying child support and they lose their job, they should immediately file a Motion to Modify Child Support. The court will not go backwards to retroactively modify the child support. However, if you file the Motion on March 15th and the Hearing is on May 10th, they will go back to March 15th to modify your child support.
The second thing the individual should do is apply for a lot of jobs. They should also document their applications for all of these jobs. The bigger the pile of paper the better. Courts will generally immediately give you a break on your child support, but say that we are coming back in 3 or 4 months to review child support again. If you have not found a job with a comparable income, you had better have a big stack of paper to introduce as evidence.
Some of the judges and hearing officers in this situation will give an individual a temporary break and order that the parties return in three or four months. There is sometimes a tendency to assume that an individual can find employment with a comparable income in that time frame. If you take a job that pays significantly less, say to put on your table or pay your friendly lawyer, you will have the court second guessing your decision. Additionally, suppose you take a job, but continue looking for a better job and your current employer finds out your looking. Then you can end up with a checkered job history and diminished employment possibilities. This situation can be very tough on the individual who has lost their job.
- Overview
- Page One - Child Support Statutes and Full-Employment
- Page Two - Self Employed Individuals and Deductions From Income
- Page Three - Calculating Income and Guaranteeing Income
- Page Four - Miscellaneous Income Rulings
If you have been terminated for cause, the Court may look at you and say it is your fault and you are obligated to provide for the children to the best of your ability. Walking off the job or getting fired for calling the boss a name would be examples of where you would have a problem. If you were fired from a sales job for poor performance, you also have a problem. The Court may choose not to believe the reasons for your dismissal or that you did it on purpose to damage the other party. Applying for and receiving unemployment benefits will assuage the Court that you are not at fault for your dismissal. If there is a letter of termination or layoff, make sure you get a copy of it for the Court.
Notice that if you were still married and got fired for swearing at your boss, there would be nothing that anyone could do about it. Once you have the Court involved through child support, though, you largely become a guarantor of this income. If you mistakenly fail to comply with keeping a professional license, the Court will have little sympathy for you. You have effectively become a guarantor of that income.
- Overview
- Page One - Child Support Statutes and Full-Employment
- Page Two - Self Employed Individuals and Deductions From Income
- Page Three - Calculating Income and Guaranteeing Income
- Page Four - Miscellaneous Income Rulings
Odd Income Rulings
Are Gifts Income
The Styka v. Styka case, I believe, wrongly decided that gifts are not income for child support purposes. 972 P.2d 16 (App. Ct. 1999) cert denied January 6, 1999. The Court ruled that gifts are not income because “In deciding this issue, we look to the language of Section 40-4-11.1. The wording of our statute is more analogous to those in jurisdictions that have not generally included gifts as income.” So, parents have a duty to be fully employed to ensure their children are appropriately cared for, but if you get a $10,000 gift every year, we will not include that as income. The father in Styka alleged that the mother received about $25,000 a year total in family gifts and trust distributions. Per the Court of Appeals, mother has no obligation to use any of that money for the support of her children.
- Overview
- Page One - Child Support Statutes and Full-Employment
- Page Two - Self Employed Individuals and Deductions From Income
- Page Three - Calculating Income and Guaranteeing Income
- Page Four - Miscellaneous Income Rulings