Legal Question in Family Law in California

Re: family support?

Child support has no tax effect for either party. Spousal support can be a write off for the payor and taxable income to the payee.

Family support is where you combine the other two into "undifferentiated" support and the whole thing is taxable to the payee. Of course, the whole thing is higher than just adding c/s and s/s together.

Family support does not work in every situation, but it can be useful and can sometimes result in the payee receiving more and the payor paying less than doing it the other way, but only after taxes.

There are also some tricky "recapture" rules. Don't agree to a f/s order without advice of knowledgeable counsel.