For the record I am from CA

I am a home health nurse that is employed as a 1099/Contractor Employee (as a recent new grad it's all I could find). My question is since my job does not reimburse me for mileage and it is an expense for me to do my job am I able to deduct that from my income and have it not factored when determining child support? I drive about 100 miles per day and work 5 days per week. What about my phone, computer, internet etc. Since I am required to work from home for charting and follow up etc. We don't have an office that us nurses can work from so working from home is my only option.

I am paid per visit and see anywhere between 20-60 patients per month (depending on census) but since I am a contractor my patient load varies from month to month. Any idea how the court will calculate child support for me.

I know my ex will argue that I am "under employed" however nursing jobs for new grads a hard to come by in CA due to the "1 year experience" nearly all companies are asking for. I have documentation of all the jobs (over 400) that I have applied for and been turned down for due to not having the "golden year". He will also argue that I left my last job that was paying me $15 per hour however I had no choice but to leave (I was let go) because in my prior job I worked as a CNA. Once I became licensed as a nurse I would have been working "bellow my licenses" which is a violation of my current nursing license because I would be held to the standards of that license.

Anyone go through this?

Your last statement about working below your license is a little off. You are held to the legality and accountability of your higher license, but there is nothing in CA that stops you from working at the caregiver, HHA, or CNA level if that is acceptable to you. The only problem is finding an employer that is willing to hire you under those circumstances (some will not) and will not take advantage of you.

As for the rest of your post about the child support issue, the only advice I can offer is to keep meticulous books and present those to the court. What else can you do? I do not see any easy way around this unless the court has a precedent for looking at your situation due to previous cases.

You are correct. I should have clarified. My old job would not keep me as I was now a nurse and they couldn't offer me a nursing job because I didn't have the year if experience, ironic actually since I was already passing meds as a cna but that's a post for another day lol.

I have applied for other CNA jobs but I'm guessing one look at my nursing license on my application and it goes right in the round file.

You cannot deduct mileage as an expense for travel to your first case or back home at the end of the day. As far as to whether it counts as income in the eyes of the court you need to consult with your attorney or licensed CPA.

@JustBeachyNurse thanks for letting me know that. At the end of the day you are right. I need to sit down with my CPA. Ill give him a call on Tuesday.

Some of my home health employers have had a policy of ok to work as an RN once licensed, others have said "no, you have to go get a year of RN experience somewhere else". It seems they cite some rule when it suits them and look in the other direction if that suits them too.

You might want to seek advice on the child support situation from an attorney's office that deals with family law. Would probably be worth the fee.

This response was previously lost in the innernetz.

I'm not in CA but my experence with my husband working and paying child support and being paid mileage is that they don't care and still count it as income.