Supreme Court Properly Imputed Income to Husband (Higher than that Reported by Husband) in Awarding Pendente Lite Maintenance and Child Support

The Second Department determined Supreme Court properly imputed income to the defendant-husband to determine pendente lite awards of maintenance and child support:

…Supreme Court providently exercised its discretion in imputing income of $200,000 per year to the defendant for the purposes of computing pendente lite awards of maintenance and child support. In determining a party’s maintenance or child support obligation, a court need not rely upon the party’s own account of his or her finances … . A court is justified in imputing income to a spouse when it is shown that the marital lifestyle was such that, under the circumstances, there was a basis for the court to conclude that the spouse’s actual income and financial resources were greater than what he or she reported on his or her tax returns … . The court may impute income to establish the party’s support obligation (see Domestic Relations Law §§ 240 [1-b][b][5][iv]; 236[B][5-a][b][4][a]…). Here, the Supreme Court, in effect, found the defendant’s account of his own finances was not believable, and was justified in imputing income to him that was far higher than he reported… . Weitzner v Weitzner, 2014 NY Slip Op 06303, 2nd Dept 9-24-14