WISCONSIN Part 48

Income

In Wisconsin, child support payments are based on the income of the paying parent. If you think you won’t have to pay because you don’t have a job, think again. For child support purposes, income is all earnings from all sources. It does not matter whether the type of income can be taxed; both taxable (say, your salary) and non-taxable amounts (your 401k, for example) count toward total income. The only difference is that you can deduct taxes first. In other words, if your salary is $30,000 a year, but you take home $25,000 after taxes, then $25,000 is the number to use for calculating child support.