[4ofus]

I am trying to find out if when my boyfriend and I get married, will my income be included with his in order to determine the child support for his 2 kids? If so, is there anything I can do to keep her from getting my money?

[Fr_Chuck]

It depends on the state you live in. In many states support is based only on the income of the non custody parent, in other states, the income of the custody parent and the non custody parent, and still in others, the wife's or household income of the non custody parent is all included.

[4ofus]

We live in VA...

[GV70]

Generaly-no... but there are a lot of exceptions.See In Re the Marriage of Drysch, 2000 WL 815278, (ILL.App2 Dist.). -in a recent Second District Illinois Appellate Court decision, which holds "a trial court may equitably consider the income of a parent's current spouse in determining an appropriate award of child support...In general, a new or subsequent spouse's income is not supposed to be included in figuring child support calculations. Doing so will almost always raise the support amount for the non-custodial parent. Even though it's not supposed to be included, judges and attorneys will often attempt to add it in one way or another.

It's not uncommon for your spouse's financial data to be requested by either the court or opposing counsel as part of a child support modification. Typically they'll want you to provide your spouse's tax returns, bank statements, and pay stubs, although often just the income tax return will be enough for them to draw a figure from.

You can "black out" portions of income tax forms and other joint financial statements to prevent release of your spouse's wage information, but it's difficult to prevent your ex (or their attorney) from obtaining it- if they want it badly enough, they'll subpeonea the records from you and/or your spouse.
However, because couples are likely to pool their resources, thereby possibly increasing the resources available to the supporting parent, the employment or income status of the supporting parent's new spouse is relevant to the issue of the parent's "available means" where marriage to a spouse earning a substantial income results in the parent having more disposable income available since remarriage

[GV70]

There is nothing in our law which requires the new spouse to support minor children of the first marriage, If the second wife was gainfully employed and if her earnings or a portion thereof was contributed to the family budget, such facts would be relevant in determining the father's ability to pay for his minor children. Commonwealth ex rel. Travitzky v. Travitzky, 230 Pa. Super. 435, 326 A.2d 883, 885 (1974). Accordingly, any portion of [the] wife's income which was used to defray family expenses would be relevant to a determination of appellant's ability to contribute to the support of his children. [Presumably, this rule would apply to the income of a second spouse of a custodial parent as well

More interesting question is when new children comes... The Courts believe you knew your obligation to your first children before having more children. The question comes down to a balancing of resources available to the children of each household. Is your ex-spouse remarried? Your income combined with your spouse’s income will be compared to your ex-spouse’s income combined with his/her ex-spouse’s new spouse’s income. If the combined income of your household is less than the combined income of ex-spouse’s household, you may be able to have your child support lowered. If you are in an exceptionally high income bracket, this may not apply to you at all.

[4ofus]

Thanks for the response GV70, I have heard before that keeping separate finances would be a good idea- in order to show my income separate from his. At this time I make more than him, and will very soon be getting a raise that will substantially increase my income. The ex has not re-married, and only works as much as she has to to make ends meet beyond her child support checks from 2 fathers(she had a child in an adultrous relationship) it sounds as though the courts will want to use my income, but would a good lawyer be able to show that isn't relevant? If it wasn't for me right now, my boyfriend would not be able to afford the child support and the current expenses. Its really a bad situation all the way around Im afraid. We want to have children together, and have to take account her child support payments(even though we would much rather just have the kids full time ourselves) I don't want to consider $$ in a decision to marry, but if my success means that the ex gets a cut of it, I just can't see doing it... oh and for the most part we keep separate expenses as well, except living expenses such as electric and mortgage