Sonoma County Dept. of Child Support Services v. Ceja CA1/3

BACKGROUND

Ceja and Janna Thomas have three children together. At the time the trial court issued its child support order, the children were 14, six, and four years old. The children spend five percent of their time with Ceja, and the remainder with Thomas. The parents were never married, and Ceja runs his own window cleaning business.

1 In May 2024, DCSS filed a complaint and sought a guideline child support order.1 It alleged Ceja earned a gross monthly income of $6,550. It calculated that amount after examining his profits and losses as reflected in 2021, 2022, and 2023 tax documents. (It subtracted his expenses from revenue in 2023 — the same as in 2022 — to arrive at $78,595 in profit. It then divided by 12, to arrive at a monthly income of $6,550 per month.) Ceja disagreed with DCSS’s request, and he instead asked the trial court to set his monthly income at $2,500 to “accommodate [his] seasonal and fluctuating income during November through April”; he also asked the court to consider his “special circumstances” — “a tax debt that is over $45,000.” He stated he learned of the debt when he hired a tax person to help him prepare documents for DCSS. He provided receipts from…