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Asked 1/25/2012

If I have a website that says "I make X amount of dollars", can that be used against me in court?

I'm self-employed and have been for years. I claim all my income at tax time because it's the right thing to do. I get a refund anyway from federal (although I usually owe state a couple hundred), so it's not like I care whether I report my income or not (meaning that hiding it won't matter since I don't owe anyway).

I have a website where I used to post my earnings so that aspiring work-at-home moms could see what was possible if they worked hard enough. I haven't posted my earnings since August or September, but I used to post them a few times a month. I usually just posted my best days (best as in highest earnings) because the blog was meant to help motivate people.

Rumor has it my ex has printed all my blog posts about what I made those days and will be bringing them to court to try and get out of paying me child support (because back then, I made more than him - but I lost all but one of those clients due to companies going under, etc.). I used to make $3000- $4000 a month and now I make around $1000, so it's a drastic difference. I also did some promotional modeling and now I'm pregnant, so obviously I can't do that again for at least a year. Will a judge even take my blog posts seriously? Can that hurt me in court?

 
 
 
 
Answers

Answer 1/2 - Submitted 1/27/2012

If you tell the judge exactly what you said in your question (about the blogs pertaining to single days in the past, and your current earnings not being anywhere near that anymore) then you should be covered for any future support payment decisions the judge makes.

Looking back into the past, the judge, logically, would be able to say that you were earning a lot more back then -- more than your ex thought you were earning.

If there's some agreement or court order in effect that you have to keep your ex posted as to any significant change in your income, and the judge finds that you should have told your ex that you were making a lot of money all of a sudden back then, it seems logical that a judge could order some adjustment to credit some money over to your ex based on your high earnings for that brief period of time in the past.

But it also seems reasonable to assume that your current pregnancy and your hard luck with losing your clients ought to be taken into account to dismiss any claim brought by your ex, unless there's a major amount of money involved that had a tremendous impact on support payments, and was deliberately concealed by you.

Assuming that's not the case, I would think a normal approach would be for the judge to look at copies of your past tax returns and compare them to your ex's tax returns, then arrive at a decision as to whether some adjustment should be made to compensate for a few months in the past, or whether the matter should be dismissed as trivial.

Since you've been so honest on your tax returns, it makes sense to assume you'd make an excellent impression in court. Based on your whole situation, I'd bet on you winning against any petty attack by your ex.

As to evidence, there's good evidence (strong evidence) and weak evidence. In my experience with family courts, copies of federal tax returns generally are the criteria for determining support payments, not blogs.

 
 

Answer 2/2 - Submitted 1/28/2012

Yeah, I think I'm going to bring my tax returns, plus the emails/articles about some of my clients going under.

 
 
 
 
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