In calcuating child support, the mediator included the monthly amount my spouse pays for child care. Our child care provider is an employee of her business, and is paid from the business payroll even when performing child care duty for our children. Since the payments are being made as part of payroll from a business account, and my spouse would get the additional benefit of this on her taxes, I was wondering if this really should have been excluded for purposes of calculating support.
What do you believe should be excluded?
Wondering if the amount she pays for child care should have been excluded because its not being paid from her household funds or earnings but instead is being paid from her business payroll account. Since that lowers her business profit she also gets a tax benefit from doing it that way…also had done it that way when we were together.
It is possible that an argument could have been made in court that she should only be able to claim as an expense a decreased amount for child care to take into account the tax benefit. Whether that was appropriate in a mediation would be determined by the circumstances.