Hazuga v. Hazuga

648 N.E.2d 391, 1995 Ind. App. LEXIS 310, 1995 WL 132052
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 29, 1995
Docket10A05-9406-CV-227
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 648 N.E.2d 391 (Hazuga v. Hazuga) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hazuga v. Hazuga, 648 N.E.2d 391, 1995 Ind. App. LEXIS 310, 1995 WL 132052 (Ind. Ct. App. 1995).

Opinion

OPINION

BARTEAU, Judge.

Margaret Howe, formerly Margaret Hazu-ga, appeals the trial court's order modifying the amount of child support Margaret must pay, raising the following issues:

1. Whether the trial court erroneously calculated gross income;
2. Whether the trial court erroneously allowed certain adjustments in calculating child support without considering after-tax costs;
3. Whether the trial court erroneously made only part of the support modification order retroactive; and
4. Whether the trial court erroneously apportioned uninsured medical expenses.

FACTS

Margaret and Larry Hazuga were divoreed on July 21, 1989 and Larry was grant *393 ed custody of their son Justin, who was eight years old at the time of the hearing on the petition for modification. The original decree ordered Margaret to pay child support of $40.00 per week and to pay one-half of the premiums to maintain health and dental insurance for Justin. That order was modified on May 15, 1991, to increase the amount of child support payments to $120.00 per week. The increase was phased in over a one year period of time. Larry was ordered to pay all ordinary medical and dental expenses of Justin's that were not covered by insurance. The order did not address whether Margaret continued to be responsible for one-half the expense of the insurance premiums. On July 6, 1992, the trial court approved an Agreed Entry whereby Margaret's child support was temporarily reduced, to return to $120.00 on August 28, 1992. The Entry also established that Margaret owed Larry $686.73 for insurance premiums through September 30, 1992.

On August 17, 1998, Margaret filed a petition to modify support. The trial court reduced Margaret's support payment to $108.00 per week, retroactive to March of 1998. Also, Larry was ordered to provide health and dental insurance for Justin without contribution from Margaret for the premiums. Uninsured medical, dental, optical and prescription expenses were ordered to be paid by both parties, Larry paying 52% and Margaret paying 48%. Additionally, the trial court found that Margaret was in arrears in support payments and in her obligation to pay one-half of medical insurance premiums in the amount of $2,800.00, which included the agreed arrearage of $686.73 set out in the Agreed Entry,. Beginning in March, 1998, Margaret paid only $85.00 per week in support, although the court's order required her to pay $120.00.

INCOME

As a preliminary matter, we note that Larry did not file a brief on appeal. Thus, we may, in our discretion, reverse if Margaret makes a prima facie showing of error. Matter of Paternity of Robinaugh (1993), Ind.App., 616 N.E.2d 409, 410, reh'g denied. Prima facie error is error appearing at first sight, on first appearance, or on the face of the argument. Id.

Margaret first argues that the trial court erred in not including income from the sale of property when calculating Larry's income for application of the child support guidelines. Larry sold a residential lot on contract in a development project he has. He receives $2,675.00 per year for the property. The trial court did not attribute this amount to Larry as gross income. If the court had done so, Margaret's support payment under the guidelines would be lower. The trial court did not err.

Larry presented evidence that he had expenses relating to the property that when deducted from the income resulted in a net loss. Those expenses included depreciation and capital expenditures. Ind. Child Support Guideline 3(A)(2) defines weekly gross income from operation of a business as gross receipts minus ordinary and necessary expenses. Margaret cites Leisure v. Leisure (1992), Ind.App., 589 N.E.2d 1163, opinion adopted in relevant part by 605 N.E.2d 755, in support of her argument that depreciation and capital expenditures should not be allowed as ordinary and necessary expenses. Her reliance on Leisure is misplaced. The support guidelines in effect at the time of Leisure specifically excluded from ordinary and necessary expenses depreciation, tax credits, or any other business expense determined by the court to be inappropriate. Id. at 1174. The present guidelines do not contain such an exclusion. "In general, these types of income and expenses from self-employment or operation of a business should be carefully reviewed in order that the deductions be restricted to reasonable out-of-pocket expenditures necessary for the production of income. These expenditures may include a reasonable yearly deduction for necessary capital expenditures." Child Supp.G. 3(A)(2). The trial court determined that Larry's expenses could be deducted from the property income, leaving Larry with no income from the property for purposes of the guidelines. Margaret has not shown that this was error.

*394 TAX BENEFIT

Margaret next argues that the trial court erred in allowing Larry to deduct $55.00 for health insurance premiums from his weekly income under the child support guidelines and allowing Larry to add $30.00 per week to the basic support obligation for child care expenses, when those amounts are deducted from Larry's income on a pre-tax basis. According to Larry's calculations, the effect of the pre-tax deduction from income is to give Larry a tax savings of $16.50 for the insurance premiums and $17.19 for the child care expenses. Thus, Larry's actual after-tax cost for the insurance and child care is $38.50 and $12.81, respectively. Margaret, without any citation to authority, argues that the trial court should have used the after-tax costs instead of the gross amounts of $55.00 and $30.00 in calculating child support. We do not agree.

Pursuant to the guidelines, child support is calculated based upon weekly gross income. A parent who pays health insurance premiums for the child may deduct the premium paid from weekly income. Further, the amount of weekly child care costs is added to the basic support obligation to reach the total support obligation to be apportioned between the parents. The evidence presented is that $55.00 per week is deducted from Larry's paycheck for health and dental insurance for Justin. Additionally, Larry pays $30.00 each week in child care expenses. That he receives a tax savings by deducting those expenses from his gross income to calculate taxable income is irrelevant to a calculation of child support. The trial court did not err.

INSURANCE PREMIUMS

Again without citing to authority, Margaret argues that the trial court erred in reducing her support payments retroactive to March, 1998 without also making retroactive the order that she was no longer required to contribute to the health and dental insurance premiums. We note that the trial court erred in making the support reduction retroactive to March, 1998 because the petition to modify was not filed until August 17, 1998. Ree Reeves v. Reeves (1992), Ind.App., 584 N.E.2d 589, 594, trans.

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Bluebook (online)
648 N.E.2d 391, 1995 Ind. App. LEXIS 310, 1995 WL 132052, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hazuga-v-hazuga-indctapp-1995.