More and more cases under income shares rely upon income averaging in cases where one party receives substantial variable income. A number of Illinois appellate court cases refine the circumstances where you should consider using an income-averaging approach. Most of the income-averaging cases were decided before both our income-sharing law involving child support and even before the change to Illinois law that allowed base plus percentage orders. Indeed, in many cases under our income sharing law, a base-plus-percentage order simply is not workable. And given the 2015 maintenance statutory amendments, this caselaw is more critical because Illinois law defines income for maintenance the same as for child support.
The Gitlin Law Firm reviews the key income-averaging cases regarding both child support and maintenance. Understanding the case law is even more important because we consider both the payor’s and the recipient’s income. Accordingly, no longer can we simply order the obligor to pay the “guideline percentage” of bonuses or similar type income.
