What is the responsibility of a person whose Spouse pays child support?

I’m in California so am not familiar with N.Y. family law, however, I have not heard of which you speak. If your partner is already paying a state mandated amount of child support I don’t think the amount is increased simply because one marries, nor have I ever heard of a new spouses income being taken into consideration when paying child support. They are his children not yours, and unless you were to legally adopt them you have zero financial obligation to them.

I’d check with legal counsel to get the facts. Surely you can have a brief consultation with a family law attorney to get the facts on what your obligations might be if you marry.

Your husband is solely responsible for his own child support. Your income would not be included in that.

I hope your husband continues to pay his child support though. His kids are his first priority. Whether you two are married or not will not and should not affect his paternal obligations.

@Coloma that does sound reasonable and I did make an appointment to speak to a professional about this matter. Thanks for the input. @JustPlainBarb umm.. well yes, I didn’t mean to give the impression that he was going to STOP paying child support. I wouldn’t marry a man who refused to honor his obligations. I should have been more clear. His boys will be adults soon and so there will come a time when child support will cease. I was merely wondering whether it would be wise to wait another 3 or 4 years when they are adults and the payments stop to marry. My husband has always taken care of his children and that is not limited to his money. He has gives them time and love.

I have heard of this and have friends who did not marry until his children were of age, because of the child support issue. She made quite a bit more money than he did and they said that her income would also be included in the way they figure the child support.

As a side note I’d like to add that in addition to paying for the 2 boys that ARE his biological children he has raised 2 children that his ex had that are not his but he didn’t think it was fair to take 2 children out and buy them things and leave the other two just because they weren’t his. Those children call him daddy too.

okay @wilma that’s is what we heard too. But I don’t make more money than hubby so I hope that is a plus.

I would check with your local Friend of the court. My friends were in Canada, but I have heard it happens other places as well.
When my ex got married I do not believe that his wife’s income was factored in to what support that he paid for our kids. The support didn’t increase, but I never asked for it to increase so maybe it would have if I had, and they had checked into it. I don’t know.

That seems completely illogical and unfair that the new wife’s income would be counted. It doesn’t work the other way does it? If his ex gets married and the new husband makes good money your hus and won’t have to pay as much? I’ve never heard that. I have hapeard it regardng alimony, but not child support.

I am interested in the legal answer though, especially since my girlfriend pays child support to her husband and she lives in MI, which is where @wilma lives I believe.

No. But ask an attorney. Give one $50 and ask.

@JLeslie your right it doesn’t seem fair. A friend of mine in Georgia waited almost 10 years to marry her husband because he was paying child support and the mother of the children kept trying to take him back to court to get increases based on the fact that the total income of his household doubled when my friend moved in with him. The judge told her that unless they were married he couldn’t award her more money.

So, whatcha waitin’ for @Akua? Marry the guy! He sounds like a really good guy too, btw.

@Dutchess_III yea he is, well if the consultation with the lawyer goes well, I’ll be a “Mrs.” by next week! Wish me luck!

Let us know!!!

If you can’t get married, talk to the lawyer about getting certain documents into place for your “not legal” husband and you. A will, including proxy for health care, stuff like that, and have the beneficiaries named correctly on bank accounts, etc.

I know this is true in Wisconsin, also @Akua. I recommend you do not get married until you’ve discussed the situation with a lawyer and a financial advisor. The situations I know of have the wife paying a lot of support to child support. Also, when the kids got older and decided to move in with those that were paying support, the support took a long time to stop going to the former spouse (courts are backed up/slow to respond to change).

I just wanted to say that if you and he are committed to each other, actually had a ceremony, in my mind you are married, and if you prefer to call each other husband and wife, I see no reason not to. You can also change your surname to his, if that is something you desire. No one you interact with will be asking if you are legally married or not. I understand why you want a civil marriage, both for emotional reasons, and the protections that come with marriage, but keep in mind civil marriage mostly is just a legal contract that provides certain obligations and protections under the law that you can get some of the more important ones done on your own by a lawyer. It isn’t fair. It costs way more to pay the lawyer for the documents than the county for a marriage license. But, the state is not interested in your love for each other, it is only interested in legal matters, property and money.

You make a very good point @JLeslie. We have already taken care of much of the paperwork to solidify our union including a will and life insurance policies and such but hubby wants to make it airtight and would still feel secure if it was documented by the government. We had a ceremony years ago and I do use his last name most of the time. We refer to each other as husband and wife and for the most part everyone thinks that we are legally married and suffice it to say we were content with just that. Now as we get older I think he/we want more. He has never been married and is convinced we should do it and I couldn’t agree more. He just text me and said that he spoke to his tax attorney who told him that not only wont my income be used to determine his Child support payments but it won’t affect our taxes either. I’ll keep you guys posted. Thanks for all the great feedback.

@Akua I completely understand. Let us know what happens.

I pay child support and was married to someone who had a very robust income. They only look at your income, not the your spouse’s. If you file joint tax returns, the other person needs to file an ‘injured spouse’ form. Then you get all your refund. They only look at the paying parent’s income, not the aggregate income of both.

A call to the family court in your county should get you an answer. Each state handles this differently but my gut is that because of Federal credit and collection laws, it is hard to imagine that an obligated parent’s spouse’s income could be included in the computation. Anyway, here is the link (which I supposed you have already looked at).
http://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/code/admin_code/dcf/150_b.pdf

Update: @Dutchess_III and @JLeslie asked me to let everyone know the latest development on this question so here it is: WE DID IT! We’re officially married as of May 31, 2012. Thanks to everyone (including our lawyer) for your replies and advice.

*****Congratulations!!************** I’d make you a wedding veil with characters, but I haven’t the FAINTEST idea how to do it!

@Dutchess_III LOL Thank you your so sweet!

@Akua thanks for the update and CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

Thanks @SuperMouse

Maybe you’ll get some soap from cazzie and/or some handcrafted, crocheted flowers.