Basic Allowance for Subsistence (BAS).
Cost of Living Allowance (COLA), if the service member is stationed overseas.
A court must critically review the Leave and Earnings Statement when it calculates a child support award. It is important to review the LES, since there are many other allowances a service member may be receiving. These allowances may include such items as jump pay, family separation allowance, hostile fire pay, flight pay, hazardous duty incentives, hardship duty location pay, professional pay for medical officers, sea pay, submarine pay, dive pay, clothing allowances, overseas per diems, partial BAH, etc.
4. How does the New Jersey family courts treat military pay and allowances?
For purposes of calculating child support and maintenance, New Jersey divorce courts use a very broad definition of “gross income.†In a nutshell, the New Jersey child support guidelines include every dollar the service member receives on the LES, even though some of the allowances are invisible to the IRS and not taxable.
Moreover, New Jersey family law courts also impute income to a service member who receives lodging or food in lieu of BAH or BAS. The reason for imputing income to a service member is because military housing is considered an “in-kind payment,†much like a company car provided by a private-sector employer. Even though no rational person would claim that a barracks room at Fort Dix or at Maguire Air Force Base was the financial equivalent to proper family housing or the full BAH at the with-dependents rate, New Jersey divorce courts may pretend that they are.
Continue Reading