Would my 2nd wife’s income be taken into account for child support?

[Michael]

A brief background; I've been divorced for 5 years and newly re-married. I have up until recently paid FULL child support for 2 children (18 year old step-daughter and 10 year old paternal son) based on an income of over 100k even though my son lives with me 50/50 and I haven't spoken with my step-daughter in almost 5 years (she’s taken on her Mother's fight and I'm the causality). I have recently been restructured and am now starting my own company but my income has been reduced and I’m on E.I. now. My step-daughter whose paternal father is alive and well albeit on a WSIB pension and recently deemed not to have to pay any support because he’s below the financial threshold, even though he is re-married and lives a nice life.
My question is this, now that my income has drastically decreased is there any possibility that my new wife’s income may come into play regarding support obligations? The home was hers prior to our marriage and she does earn a good salary. The reason I ask is my ex-wife is now requesting my 2nd wife’s financial info which leads me to believe she’s taking a run at this for me to continue paying support biased on an income I no longer have. This can’t be right! When we were divorced I agreed to pay full support at the time because she had no skills and was going back to school which she has finished. She’s now running her own business and making what appears to be a reasonable living. The matrimonial home (not mine any more) is mortgage free with an income apartment to boot which she chooses not to rent. She’s better off than most people at 45 but still feels I need to pay and pay.
This all came about because I’ve filed to terminate my support for both children given one child is 18 and not mine by birth and the other lives with me 50% of the time.
Don’t get me started on the FRO and their tireless pursuit of me for support that I can’t pay.
Are there any thoughts or advice from the group?

[AtALoss]

What the court and FRO will be looking for is your ability to pay.They will not ask your new spouse to pay but because she has a good income she can support you. Courts and FRO are going to look at it that cut and dry. You ahve some income therefore you still pay. About the only income that they cannot touch is disability bennifits.

Now you have to and I think you are fileing a Motion to Vary (meaning a change to support) You have reduced income and your ex has. You want the court to re-asess the situation. While you are going thru this it is a stressful situation but be very adamant about keeping up with your motion. Dont let anything slide.

[#1StepMom]

Michael, the only way the courts would take your new wife's income into consideration would be if you were filing for undue hardship. If you are claiming that you are unable to pay the guideline amount based on your current income, then the court will look at your wife's income to determine whether you could be supported by her (where she would be paying for all the household expenses, ex: mortgage or rent, utilities, etc.) while you pay your obligated amount of child support.

As long as you are filing a motion to vary based on your new income, and you are willing to pay the guideline amount associated with that income, how much your wife makes should not even come into the picture.

I cannot believe that your ex had the nerve to ask you to disclose your wife's finances. That is none of her business. But I can relate... my stepson's mom has tried the same, specifically when she found out we were getting married, she kept asking when we were getting married, and what kind of job do I have, etc. My husband simply told her that it was none of her business. Because it isn't their business. The only income information custodial parents have access to is the non-custodial parent's income. Not that of their spouses.

[Fair4All]

The court differentiates between "I can't pay" and "I don't want to pay". In the first situation, you may be in arrears and, I believe, the court may need your current wife's income to determine total household means. In the second situation, you are continuing to make payments and the focus is on your ex-wife's attempts to become self-sufficient.

My advice to your current wife: do not share your financial information. Just show on the financial statements how much you contribute to the household.

My advice to you: Instead of having the court just look at your reduced income, turn the focus on your ex-wife and her attempts to become self-sufficient. Use the SSAG if you can.

I know of a situation similar to this, and because the ex-husband was maintaining hs payments and the ex-wife had a paid off home and no debt, the current wife did not have to show her financial information.

BTW - not only would providing your current wife's financials to the court mean that your ex-wife and your step-daughter would know how much your current wife makes (none of their business), the information would also become a public document.

[Deputy Daddy]

I don't know if I'm mis-understanding something here, but OP's son is with him 50/50 so the ex wife's income would certainly be taken into account and reduce his CC drastically.... No?

[standing on the sidelines]

your new wife should not have to provide her financial info to the ex. The only connection she has to the kids is through you so why should she be expected to ante up anything? I am sure when your child is with you she helps take care of him, feed him etc. IMHO that is all she should have to do, she does not have to pay the ex any of her money for CS.

Your ex is the type of woman who gives the rest of us bad names. She has the ability to support herself but still feels that she has to stick it to you for gobs of CS to make her life easier. As long as you are paying the guidlines according to your income level (it should be less becasue of the 50% custody) then she should be happy.

She just wants you to have the child 50%, pay for a step child that is 18 and has severed ties with you. On top of all that she wants you to pay 100% of the CS based on income you no longer have. Woman like her make me cringe.

[independentgal]

If you paid spousal support, not child support, you would be obligated to disclose your new wife's income for those purposes if either the ex or yourself were making a claim for undue hardship.

[billm]

Regarding partner's income.

Here is a scenario (sometimes it helps to take things to extremes to see something).

Generally if you are working and your partner makes a reasonable income comprable to yours, then it does not matter, or at least I would like it to not matter as life would just be more simple that way.

However consider, the case where you don't or can't work, and are supported by your partner - you have a car, a house, travel, food etc. Is this a case where it would be fair to give no support to your kids? If you had them living with you and your partner, would you say 'sorry kids, no new clothes for you this year, daddy does not have a job. Daddy has to go out now, my new wife is buying me some clothes...'.

If you are working and doing your thing, I think you should pay CS based on what you earn. If you are not making the same living you would be if you were single and are being supported by someone else, even partially, then I think you should pay CS based on what you should be making.

Also, if you are out of work temporarily, you still spend money on yourself, you pay the mortgage, bills, etc, you find the money somewhere, even if it a loan. So when you are spending more temporarily than your temporarily reduced income can support you should probably pay CS based on more than you are actually bringing in as it is temporary, and you are covering the temporay shortage for yourself, so why not for your own children?

A concern of mine is that my ex remarries (we have 50/50 split), and then stops working or only works part time because she can afford to because she is being partially supported by her husband - okay she doesn't have to work, but don't expect me to pay more CS because she doesn't have income. CS amounts should be based on working full time in one's profression and this includes when there is a temporary distrution in income that is being covered by obtaining money through other means such as savings or loans.

Those are my thoughts on the whole partner thing and temporarily loosing income.

[standing on the sidelines]

all very good points. I would hate to see anyone suffer becasue the person paying support has decided to live off their new partner and has quit work.

[Michael]

2nd question for the group regarding how much info I have to provide?

First off, I want to thank all those whom have taken the time to put forward their thoughts and suggestions. Second and more importantly, I don’t want anyone to think that I’m trying to avoid CS obligations as I take the caring for a child very seriously regardless of my feelings towards the Mother. More to the point it seems that the system wants pin the CS obligations on anyone standing to close. My 18 stepdaughter’s Father can avoid his responsibilities by being on WSIB benefits and below the threshold. The Mother who of both children refers to CS as income and by way of subterfuge (i.e. Recovering from cancer 4 years ago and a daughter with a as of yet undiagnosed illness of 2 years) convinces the courts that she is unable to work because of her and her daughters issues with health. She is running a cash business from her home and claims minimal income from it. Therefore, by default I’m the person everyone is looking to for the money. An item that the courts seem to overlook because of “the money issue” is that the Mother in unable to get my son to school while in her care (now averaging over 25 days of missed classes for 3 years consecutively; she’s been issued truancy notices from the School Board). I’ve long put forward that I would like to have him with me full time but NO what Mommy wants Mommy gets. When will the courts start to see Fathers as primary care givers?
NOW after all of this nonsense I have another question for the group.
During the Case Conference, I was ordered to provide detailed account statements for all of my bank and credit cards for the last 18mths even though the disputed support is only 12mths. Is this right, it seems to be an invasion of privacy. Isn’t CS based on income proven by way of tax statements? What will happen if I don’t provide them at the Case Settlement? Can or will I suffer for doing this. I don’t have problems giving them to the courts but the Ex would share all the info with other members of her family and friends and I feel it’s none of her business. What can I do to stop this?