Knowles clarifies and reiterates the law that if you re-marry your new spouse’s income and even their assets may not be considered for purposes of establishing child support. In this case the Husband had joint assets with his wife and his ex-wife tried to get at these assets for child support. The appeals court clarified that the ex-wife could only get one-half of the income from these assets as only one-half was husband’s share of the community property assets. This case clearly sets forth a bright line standard— if you re-marry your new spouse’s income is off limits for purposes of establishing support.
Furthermore, the Court also went on to state that Capital Gains should not be considered as income when the husband presented evidence as to a reasonable rate of return to his investments. This is an important holding as in many cases there is a supported spouse who has considerable investment income but that investment income is invested in stock or other non-income producing assets. In such cases it is appropriate to argue that the assets could be re-invested and generate a reasonable rate of return, thus lessening the payor-spouse’s liability for support. Child Support Calculator
