Even if the funds are from the government, these funds play a factor in your child support.
If you are receiving an Overseas Housing Allowance, that Overseas Housing Allowance will be included in your income for child support calculation purposes. According to the Defense Travel Management Office, the Overseas Housing Allowance (OHA) is paid to Service members living in private housing at overseas duty stations. Overseas Housing Allowance helps offset housing costs, consisting of rent, utility and recurring maintenance expenses and move-in housing allowance (MIHA). Although there is a separate allowance for rent and utilities, housing allowances appear as a single amount in a pay statement.
A recent Florida appellate case dealt with this issue and found that the Overseas Housing Allowance is included in a calculation for child support. In Department of Revenue v. Price, the First District Court of Appeals reviewed the final judgement in a dissolution of marriage case involving past due child-support payments. The husband previously received an OHA to offset overseas housing expenses. In calculating the husband’s past due child-support obligation, the trial court concluded that the father’s OHA should not be included as part of his gross income. However, the appellate court reversed the trial court’s decision. The appellate court reasoned that Florida Statutes expressly require that payments to reduce living expenses be included in gross income calculations and OHA is not excluded from this statutory requirement. Therefore, the appellate court ordered that the OHA be included as part of the husband’s gross income and remanded the case for recalculation of the husband’s past due child-support obligation.
Your lawyer should be well educated in applicable law concerning gross income calculations. If your settlement does not address all possible forms of income that are required for inclusion in gross income calculations, you may be cheated out of the true amount of child-support payments you deserve.
If you have any questions related to gross income calculations or child-support payments or require legal assistance in other areas of Family Law you may always contact Damien McKinney of The McKinney Law Group to discuss your case further. He can be reached by phone at 813-428-3400 or by e-mail at [email protected].
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