Foy v. Foy, 2016 Ohio 242

James and Linda Foy married in 1994 and have one child; marital dissolution actions began in 2011 with temporary orders established in 2012.
From April–September 2012 Mr. Foy made temporary spousal-support payments of $1,000/month (recorded in journal entries).
At final hearings the parties agreed on most issues; the trial court reserved and later determined spousal support ($750/month for 75 months) and child support ($403.83/month + 2% processing).
The court calculated Mr. Foy’s supportable income by averaging his 2009–2011 reported gross receipts ($66,924) and ordinary business expenses ($20,511), based on his testimony and tax returns.
Mr. Foy appealed, arguing the trial court failed to account for (1) certain business expenses in awarding spousal support, (2) business expenses in computing child support, and (3) the court-ordered spousal support as income to Linda and as a deduction to James in the child-support worksheet.
The Ninth District affirmed as to business-expense issues but reversed and remanded on the child-support worksheet error—ordering that the court-ordered spousal support be included as income to Linda and as a deduction to James for child-support calculation.

Issue	Foy's Argument	Foy (other party) Response	Held
Whether trial court abused discretion by not accounting for Mr. Foy’s business expenses when awarding spousal support	Trial court ignored or undervalued business expenses (including home-office expenses and 2012 figures)	Trial court used averages from 2009–2011 tax returns and Mr. Foy’s testimony; estimates and 2012 docs were not in record	Overruled: court did consider and use averaged business expenses from 2009–2011; no abuse shown
Whether trial court erred by failing to deduct business expenses when calculating child support	Trial court failed to deduct self-employment business expenses (and should have used 2012 figures)	Court did deduct $20,511 ordinary business expenses and used averaged figures; 2012 returns not in record	Overruled: record shows deduction for ordinary business expenses; no abuse shown
Whether court-ordered spousal support must be included as income to wife and deducted from husband on child-support worksheet	Spousal support ordered ($750/mo) should be included on worksheet as wife’s income and husband’s deduction	Wife argued statute requires amounts be "actually paid/received" and final order just issued, so not yet paid/received	Sustained: Ninth Dist. applies precedent requiring inclusion of court-ordered spousal support on worksheet; remanded to recalculate child support (add $9,000 to wife’s annual income and deduct $9,000 from husband’s income)

Blakemore v. Blakemore, 5 Ohio St.3d 217 (Ohio 1983) (abuse-of-discretion standard explained for appellate review)