One of the key steps when an Idaho court determines child support is to determine the “income” of each parent. Defining “income” is not always so straight-forward. A parent’s “income” under the Idaho Child Support Guidelines is defined as the parent’s gross income, with certain adjustments. Gross income is broadly defined to include income from any source. This includes wages, tips, bonuses, trust income, and social security benefits. It also includes education grants, scholarships, and ...
Community Property Pitfalls
Continuing on my theme of community property and co-ownership of property, I wanted to address a common misunderstanding that creates a pitfall for the unwary: in Idaho, just because you have a particular beneficiary designation on an account or on life insurance does not always mean that the beneficiary will receive those funds. Take, for example, a divorced couple who has children between them. Perhaps they agree to take out life insurance policies benefiting each other in the event of ...
Own Things With Friends: Pros And Cons Of Various Ownership Ideas
Continuing on from my last post about community property laws in Idaho, today I’ll look at various types of property ownership and the pros and cons of each. I’m thinking here about how you hold bank accounts, title to real estate, or investment accounts with a co-owner. In Idaho, it is common to find property (especially real property) titled as “Bob and Sue Smith, husband and wife.” The effect of holding property in that “community property” form is that, upon the death of one spouse, ...
Community Property Versus Separate Property — What’s Mine Is Mine, Or Maybe It’s Yours, Or Maybe Not…
Idaho is what’s known as a “community property” state — one of 9.5 such states in the United States. (Alaska has an opt-in provision for community property, so it is the 1/2 state.) The rest of the states are “common law” property state. In those states, determining who owns what is generally straight-forward. If there is a written title document for the property (house, car, boat), then whoever is listed on the title owns the property. If there is not title, then whoever owned the money ...
