What Is Imputing Income? How Does It Affect Child Support Modification in Colorado?

While many parents do what they should when it comes to supporting their children, it is an unfortunate fact that there are parents out there who will try their best not to pay child support.  One way this is done is for the non-custodial parent to lower his or her earnings in the hopes of getting a child support modification in Colorado that reflects that lower income.  However, lowering income is not going to result in a lower child support in itself, especially if that child support modification in Colorado is done in bad faith.

Voluntarily lowering one’s earnings through methods such as quitting a job, hiding earnings from self-employment, having a job that pays less than a previous job or refusing to find work after being laid off or terminated is not going to result in a child support modification in Colorado that will lower that parent’s child support responsibility.  The reasoning behind this is that a parent should not be rewarded for acting in bad faith when it comes to trying to lower their child support obligation.  If a parent attempts to lower their income this way, the courts will “impute” income to that parent.

Imputing income means that the court will look at the income that parent made before he or she attempted to voluntarily lower their income.  This means that a parent who makes $75,000 and cuts back their hours at work so that they only make $30,000 will still owe child support as if they made $75,000.  This does not mean that a parent would never be able to modify their support obligation lower in some circumstances, as long as the parent acts in good faith.