TN Dad’s Income Based on Actual Deposits, Not Tax Returns

Tennessee child support case summary on modifying child support and income determination.

Heather Walker Sellers v. Billy Joe Walker

The mother and father in this Tennessee case were divorced in 2007 and had two children, ages four and two.  They agreed to a permanent parenting plan which called for the father to pay $800 per month in child support.  The father was self-employed, and his income was set at $9,750 per month.

In 2012, the mother filed a petition to review the support obligation.  The father asked for a downward departure based on his income, and introduced his Schedule C’s for a four year period, showing the profit from his automobile sales.  The mother, on the other hand, took the position that the finding of income should be instead based on the actual amount of money deposited into his personal bank account.  The father’s accountant pointed out that the father financed some of the cars he sold, and received cash in one year, even though the amount had been reported as income in previous years.  The trial court agreed with the mother, based the income on the average amount deposited, which was $8080 per month, and set child support based on this income level.  The father then appealed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals.

On appeal, the mother argued that the trial court had found the accountant’s testimony to not be credible, since he had not performed any audit of the information provided by the father.

The appeals court agreed with the mother’s position, particularly since the deposits had been considerably larger than the amounts reported on Schedule C.   Even though the father explained that some of the money had come from other sources, the appeals court noted that the father had presented little evidence to support this claim.

For these reasons, the Court of Appeals agreed with the trial court’s approach, and affirmed the determination of income.

The court also addressed other issues involving insurance and self-employment taxes, and affirmed the ruling with some modification.

No. E2014-00717-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. Apr. 29, 2015).

See original opinion for exact language.  Legal citations omitted.

To learn more, see Child Support Modification in Tennessee | How to Modify Child Support.  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.