In Re Marriage of Schulze

In this appeal, a noncustodial parent challenges a family support order which took more than 83 percent of his after-tax monthly monetary income. The large percentage was essentially the result of two factors. One, the trial judge appears to have used, to determine the permanent spousal support component of the family support order, a figure generated by a privately developed computer program which was intended to be used to calculate temporary support. Temporary support, as most family lawyers know, usually is higher than permanent support because it is intended to maintain the status quo prior to the divorce. As we explain below, use of the temporary figure was error. The spousal support component of a permanent family support order must be based on the statutory factors enumerated in section 4320 of the Family Code, not pegged to a number generated by a computer program intended for use in calculating temporary support.

Two, the trial court characterized certain employer-provided benefits as “nontaxable.” Such a characterization, in the “Alice in Wonderland” world of algebraically determined support orders (see In re Marriage of Carter (1994) 26 Cal.App.4th 1024,…