Stay at Home TN Mom’s Child Support Based on Imputed Income
Tennessee child support case summary on imputing income to a stay at home mom.
Jennifer Rebecca Creswell Henegar v. Jason Adam Henegar
The husband and wife in this Tennessee divorce case were married in 2007 and had a son in 2007. They separated in 2013, but both continued to live with the son in the marital residence until the wife filed for divorce in 2014. She asked to be named primary residential parent.
The husband worked as a state wildlife biologist with a salary of $60,000, and also worked a second job at Bass Pro Shop, earning an additional $19,000 per year.
The trial court granted the divorce and made a number of rulings. In particular, it set child support based upon the husband’s income from his two jobs, and also imputed income to the wife in the amount of $10 per hour. The wife then appealed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals. She raised numerous issues, one of these being the income imputed to her. She argued that the trial court erred in imputing this income. The appeals court first noted that this is appropriate in cases of voluntary underemployment, but that such a finding needs to be weighed against the need to have a stay-at-home parent. It noted that this is a factual question.
In this case, the trial court had focused on the fact that the mother had remained unemployed even when the son was attending preschool two or three days a week. It noted that this caused financial problems, to the point where the husband was working two fulltime jobs.
The appeals court noted that the wife had been earning $18 per hour just a year before trial. Coupled with the fact that the son was in preschool, this was deemed to be sufficient grounds for the trial court to impute the income.
After addressing a number of other issues, the appeals court, after affirming the income determination, reversed some other rulings and sent the case back for further proceedings.
No. M2015-01780-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. June 29, 2016).
See original opinion for exact language. Legal citations omitted.
To learn more, see Child Support Laws in Tennessee.
See also Tennessee Parenting Plans and Child Support Worksheets: Building a Constructive Future for Your Family featuring actual examples of parenting plans and child support worksheets from real cases available on Amazon.com.
