Military law

Re: Military law


First, it doesn't matter whether your BAH is taxable or not. All military compensation (pay, allowances, bonuses) must be included in your total income when determining your child support obligation.

Second, if there were any law that exempted BAH from consideration in a child support determination, your lawyer would be obligated to bring the law to the attention of the judge. A judge is required to follow the laws. Judges are NOT getting away with something they ought not be doing simply because "nobody" wants to pay to challenge their rulings.

Third, you do not appeal a state court judge's child support ruling to a federal judge. You appeal a state court judgment through your state courts of appeals. No federal district court has jurisdiction to review (and affirm or reverse) a state court decision. Once you have exhausted the appeals process in your state, only the United States Supreme Court has the jurisdiction to hear an appeal from your state's highest court -- and then only if a federal question is presented. You must have misunderstood your lawyer -- or else your lawyer has no idea what she is talking about.

Makes perfect sense to me. This was on my mind for a while and when I found this site, I thought mind as well ask. Thank you for the reply. Mike

See link
A caseworker's guide to CHILD SUPPORT ENFORCEMENT AND MILITARY PERSONNEL

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Administration for Children and Families
Office of Child Support Enforcement

In general, all pay and allowances may be considered in setting the support obligation. It may also be appropriate under State law/guidelines to consider other factors. For example, all members receive BAS/Sep Rats or they live in government accommodations and eat in the mess hall for free. This "in kind" compensation may justify an upward adjustment of cash income in setting the support obligation. Thus, the BAH and BAS/Sep Rats amount should be constructively added to the member's pay, as the reasonable value of the "in kind" income, even if (s)he is not receiving these.

Thank you for the website

Either your lawyer is mis-informed for she misinterpreted the Federal Law. Being non-taxable income has nothing to do with it. The issue with BAH is that it contains 2 components.

The first is the Basic BAH rate that you'd get based soley on your rank no matter where you are assigned.

The 2nd component used to be called "Variable Housing Allowance" and that amount changes based on the cost of living where you are assigned.

Judges are supposed to be informed that they are only supposed to consider the basic BAH rate since the variable rate changes constantly based on local apartment rent and utility costs (which change several times a year in most locations) and your location as you get reassigned.

You need to find out whether they used your entire BAH amount or if they only used the basic rate. If they used the full amount then if you move to a lower cost of living area you'd have to go back to the state court and request that you child support amount be adjusted.

btw, according to 42 U.S.C. §§ 659-662 and 5 C.F.R. Part 581, if there is a garnishment order BAH can NOT be garnished. Any garnishment order can only go after base pay and any special duty pay you might be getting.

Maybe that is what your lawyer was referring to?