Can a Parent Avoid Paying Maryland Child Support by Quitting Their Job?
Maryland courts calculate child support based on the income of both parents. In most cases this means looking at a parent’s actual income, i.e., how much they earn per year at their job or profession. So what happens if a parent quits their job? Does this reduce their child support obligation?
The answer to that question largely depends on whether the judge believes that the parent “voluntarily impoverished” themselves to avoid paying child support in the first place. Basically, a Maryland court is allowed to “impute” income if they conclude that is what a parent has done. Imputed income is essentially an estimate of what the parent would be earning had they not quit their job or otherwise taken intentional steps to avoid working.
Maryland Court Rejects Father’s Explanation for Quitting Job
A recent decision from the Appellate Court of Maryland, Bernard v. Bernard, provides a useful real-world example of how imputed income works in determining child support. In this case, a husband filed for divorce after 22 years of marriage. The husband and wife have three children, one of whom was still a minor.
The husband was a veteran, having served in the United States Army for 24 years. Following his retirement from the Army in 2019, the husband took a job with a defense contractor in Maryland. In October 2023, the Maryland court hearing the divorce case ordered the husband to pay temporary child support of $1,688 per month, plus an additional $200 per month in arrears (back child support).
A few days after the court entered this support order, the husband notified the judge that he had moved from Maryland to Florida and “was no longer employed,” having resigned from his defense contractor job. The husband accordingly petitioned for a reduction in his child support obligation. The judge did reduce the temporary support obligation slightly to $1,587 per month but otherwise kept the order intact.
After a final hearing on the divorce, however, the court calculated the husband’s final child support obligation at $1,863 per month. The judge reached this conclusion after imputing income of $16,708 per month to the husband. This reflected how much he would still be earning had he not quit his defense contractor job. The judge concluded the husband voluntarily left that job to impoverish himself, adding that he had largely spent his time traveling and not making “any real effort to support Wife or the children, aside from paying the rent for the family home.”
The Appellate Court upheld the trial judge’s ruling. It rejected the husband’s argument, which he also made at trial, that his diminished income was the result of a disability, specifically post-traumatic stress disorder that he sustained while serving in the Army. While the husband was receiving partial disability benefits from the VA, he was not “unable to work because of a physical or mental disability,” which is the standard Maryland courts use when deciding whether to impute income to a parent for child support purposes. Indeed, the Appellate Court noted the husband “sought employment outside Maryland and started his own business during the divorce proceedings.”
Contact a La Plata, Maryland Child Support Attorney Today
All parents have a legal and moral obligation to financially support their minor children. But parents can and will disagree over the extent of that obligation under the law. A qualified La Plata child support lawyer can represent you in such disputes. Contact Fanning Law, LLC today to schedule a consultation. We serve clients in LaPlata, Waldorf, and Lexington Park.
Source:
scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=917417744044415
