Military members typically receive many benefits for their service to our country. These benefits may be counted as income when calculating child support in Arizona. For instance, a military member may receive money for a housing allowance or the military member may receive free housing rather than a housing allowance.

In the Arizona Court of Appeals case of Patterson v. Patterson, the Court ruled that the value of military-provided on-base housing might be included in a parent’s income for child support calculations, based on the court’s determination as to whether the value of that benefit is significant and reduces the parent’s living expenses.

The court’s opinion relied on the language in the Arizona Child Support Guidelines which states that “income from any source” is includable as gross income. These guidelines also require the cash value of “other non-cash benefits” be counted as gross income if they are significant and reduce personal living expenses.

Collection of Child Support is often difficult, but government, State and Federal, wants payment to be made and has provided a large amount of help. If a parent does not pay child support, he or she is subject to enforcement measures to collect regular and past-due payments.

Prior to 2006, there was a three year statute of limitations for collecting on a judgment for child support arrears. The statute of limitations for collection of child support was eliminated in 2006. The following are some of the enforcement measures for collecting past due child support.