Does Mileage Reimbursement Count as Income for Child Support and Alimony in Utah?

In Utah, people get paid in all sorts of interesting ways.

Sometimes they get money. Sometimes they get benefits. Sometimes they get stuff.

And sometimes they get paid mileage reimbursement.

Mileage is designed to reimburse for the wear and tear on your car.

That’s not how people use it, though.

They never set aside that money to buy a new car or for repairs.

Instead, they put it in their bank account with the rest of their pay check and use it as income.

Mileage and Utah divorce

When you get paid mileage and you get divorced in Utah, do you count it as income when figuring out child support and alimony?

There’s a 2006 Utah Court of Appeals case that says mileage can be included as income when calculating child support and alimony.

Because of this case, our experience has been that Utah commissioners and judges consider mileage to be income, and then calculate child support and alimony accordingly.

There may be one way of getting around this: show that you set aside all of your mileage reimbursement in a separate account to be used for the purchase of a car or for the repair of the car you own now.

I have to tell you that despite what I just said, in all my time as a divorce attorney, having helped thousands of people, no one has actually set aside their mileage.

So, for all intents and purposes, mileage will be considered income when calculating alimony and child support.

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