Income and Expense Declaration: How to Fill Out, and Important Aspects of, Page 1 of the Income and Expense Declaration
Income and Expense Declaration (FL-150) form: https://courts.ca.gov/sites/default/files/courts/default/2024-11/fl150.pdf
Employment
This is for your employment, not the other party’s employment.
If you are self-employed, state self-employed.
If you are no longer employed, state information for your last employed.
Hours worked
If there is a child custody dispute, do not state over 40 hour per week worked, or else the other party will state that your work prohibits you from caring for the child(ren).
If your work schedule changes and is inconsistent, write “Varies”. But try to give a range i.e. 10-20 hours per week.
I get paid $____
If you are on salary, write the salary amount either weekly or monthly (if annual, divide by 12 and check monthly box).
If you get paid by the hour, put the normal hourly rate.
If you are self-employed- speak to an attorney. We may use profit and loss statement from prior year. We may use tax return amount. We may calculate our own amount.
Age and Education
Fill out this section as much as possible with the applicable information.
When reviewing a party who is unemployed or underemployed, review this section carefully to make arguments about their education, licenses and vocational training to show they have a high ability to work and an ability to earn a high income.
We can impute income for support purposes by using job postings of jobs that the other party is qualified for.
Note- if our client is unemployed, they will use job postings to show they have the ability to make those amounts.
Clients are recommended to apply for jobs they are qualified for and keep a record of those job applications submitted.
You cannot impute income to someone is past the age of retirement- 65 years old.
You cannot impute income to a parent if it is not in the child’s best interest. I.e. a young child should be with a parent instead of childcare will be a common argument made.
Tax Information
Use the last filed tax return.
The tax filing status and the number of exemptions are important elements of determining temporary spousal support and guideline child support.
The more exemptions a party claims, the more after-tax income they have to pay support or the less support they will receive.
Other Party’s Income
In this section, this is your opportunity to make an argument as to what you believe the other party’s income is. You should be as detailed as possible.
A common mistake is that people will state the other party’s income is “Unknown”. I suggest you do not write unknown. If you write unknown, an argument may be made that you admit that you have no personal knowledge of the other party’s income. Therefore, the amount the other party claims should be used for income purposes. Writing “Unknown” can have a devasting impact on your case.
You can create an attachment regarding how you calculated the other party’s income. Using tax returns, bank statements, W-2s, 1099s, profit and loss statements, or even text messages or emails from the other party should be attached to show the other party’s income. The more detail you give for your calculation of the other party’s income, and the more backup documentation you provide, the more likely the court will trust your calculation of the other party’s income.
