Imputed Income, As Opposed to Actual Income, Used to Determine Mother’s Contribution to College Costs
The Third Department used imputed income to determine mother’s ability to contribute to the children’s college education:
In determining child support or related expenses, a court may impute income to a parent based on that party’s failure to seek more lucrative employment that is consistent with his or her education, skills and experience … . Imputed income more accurately reflects a party’s earning capacity and, presumably, his or her ability to pay … . Thus, imputed income may be attributed to a party as long as the court articulates the basis for imputation and record evidence supports the calculations … .
Here, Family Court accepted the mother’s income as $15,000, without imputing any income to her. She testified that she earned approximately that amount at her part-time job as a tax preparer, but acknowledged that she has a Bachelor’s degree in accounting and could work full time, yet chooses to work reduced hours out of loyalty to her employer. Because we are basing the college expenses on the parties’ ability to pay rather than their actual income, we will impute income to the mother based on her underemployment and ability to earn more ,,, . Using the mother’s testimony that she earned approximately $15,000 working full time from January through April and two days per week for the remainder of the year, we can extrapolate a full-time salary for her at the same earning rate, resulting in an imputed income of $25,000. Matter of Curley…, 514294, 3rd Dept 10-17-13