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My ex has moved to PA (we used to live 15 mins apart in MD), has re-married, and is now being supported by her husband and is not working. Our daughter's biological father (I had adopted her upon our marriage) passed away and my ex now collects the Social Security benefits for that. I really have two questions: 1) Do the social security benefits count towards her income, and 2) Does her not working qualify as voluntary impoverishment? If so, do we count her husband's earnings, or her potential earnings?

"Do the social security benefits count towards her income"
Tali may have an answer for this, at least as the IRS sees it. Tali typically answers late at night, so check back in the morning. Generally, anything coming in is considered income. However, the SS income may be counted towards the kid, not the parent. Dunno.

"Does her not working qualify as voluntary impoverishment?"
Typically, people who become voluntarily unemployed will be imputed income either at what they were making at the time they became unemployed or what they could make on the open market (usually applies if they have been out of the work force for a while). At the bare minimum, she'll be imputed minimum wage for 40 hours a week.

"do we count her husband's earnings"
No.

"her potential earnings"
Yes.

Thanks for the quick response, BeaverFever. Here's a rundown of why I'm asking (maybe yourself or someone else has some input). Until she had moved, I paid the state ordered child support plus half of all extracurricular activities. Since she's moved, we've modified the support (again, I'm paying it on time, every time) and as I expected, since I don't have as many overnights the CS has gone up.
Here's the problem. The new activity my daughter is in is roughly double the cost of what it was in MD. It was more of a verbal agreement to pay half, and with the CS going up I've really had a hard time paying it.
I have a feeling that the ex will try to take me for more CS (we just used the web-form, not an official master) when I tell her that I won't be able to do the 1/2 anymore.
Thoughts? I really hate telling my daughter no...and its apparently a word my ex doesn't use much...but something has to give. :cry:

"I have a feeling that the ex will try to take me for more CS (we just used the web-form, not an official master) when I tell her that I won't be able to do the 1/2 anymore."
All you can really do is let her try and see what happens. Bear in mind that unless jurisdiction changes (and this would have to be initiated by one party - the court won't do it unless asked), you'll be using the MD CS guidelines.

Thanks! That was going to be another question, given the 'cross-border' situation, which guideline do we use... :grin: Appreciate any and all advice & thoughts! Ugh...what a pain.

Beaver is correct. If she has voluntarily left her job, then her last income or potential income, based on education and experience, should be used as imputed income.

Jursidiction will remain in Maryland, unless she request's a change.

As far as the extra cirricular. If it is not in the court order and you are willing to voluntarily contribute, than give an amount you are comfortable with and can afford to do. This way you stay within your budget and have control over the amount vs. the activity is established and you owe half.

Two things that you should look into in regards to the Maryland CS calculator. You stated that your CS went up due to less overnight's. The magic number in Maryland is something like 181 overnight's to make a difference (don't have it right in front of me). So when your ex lived in Maryland did you exceed that number? If you followed standard visitation you would not have, and therefore the decrease in overnight situation now, should not have cause an increase.

The second thing is this. Play around with the calculator. What I have found is that when changing the figure of the NCP's income, it greatly affects the percentage's. When you change the CP's figure, it doesn't change much.

So take this into consideration as leverage when you negotiate any agreement with your ex. For instance, say your ex made 30k at her last job. Put 30k in and run the numbers. Then put 20k in (which is approx full time min wage). See how the bottom line change's. It may not change by much. Then you can maybe negotiate accepting using an imputed income of min wage for ex, in lieu of paying half of activity fee's. You said you did the figure's yourself, did you account for health insurance premium's, as that makes a difference as well.

Trust me when I am telling you that I am not trying to explain to you how to 'get out of anything', but just so that you are informed and can make good decision's.

No, her husband's income has no bearing at all on the child support. Obiously, he pays her 'percentage', but it has zero bearing in any type of calculation's. And she can not claim a zero income for calculation purpose's unless she is unable to work for whatever reason.