Your Spouses Income Makes No Difference
Video Transcribed: How does my current spouse’s income affect my Oklahoma child support obligation? My name is James Wirth. I am a child support attorney in Tulsa; that’s the question we have. It’s part of a series that we’re doing relating to Oklahoma Child Support and Oklahoma Child Support Guidelines.
All right. So you’ve got a child from a prior relationship. You’ve got an order entered for child support, or you’re getting ready to enter an order for child support. As I’ve told you in prior videos, the party’s income is the most important factor in determining child support.
How much do you make, and how much does your ex make? That’s the primary factor in determining, but what about your current spouse? So since that relationship, you’ve gotten married to somebody else, and that person has a career and is earning money. How does that money affect your child support guidelines? And the answer is, it doesn’t whatsoever.
The Oklahoma Child Support Guidelines do not factor in your significant other or your spouse’s income. So your spouse could be making a million a month, and it will not be a factor in the Oklahoma Child Support Guidelines.
Now, under circumstances extreme like that, where it’s a million a month, perhaps the other side could argue for a deviation from the guidelines under those circumstances. But generally speaking, 99.9% of the time, judges in Oklahoma go by the Oklahoma Child Support Guidelines, and your current spouse, current girlfriend, or significant other, is not a factor in the Oklahoma Child Support Guidelines. It’s not relevant. It doesn’t make a difference.
So if the question is, how does your current spouse’s income affect your child support? It doesn’t. If you’ve got questions about your specific circumstances, you will want to talk to an attorney about that privately to get legal advice. To get that scheduled with a Tulsa Family Law Attorney at my office, you can go to makelaweasy.com.
