(a) Earned income means income in cash or in kind earned by an individual through the receipt of wages, salary, commissions, or profit from activities in which he/she is engaged as a self-employed individual or as an employee. Such earned income may be derived from his/her own employment such as a business enterprise or farming; or derived from wages or salary received as an employee. It may include earnings over a period of time for which settlement is made at one given time, as in the instance of sales of farm crops, livestock or poultry. Income received by an individual on a contractual basis or income received intermittently on a quarterly, semiannual or yearly basis must be prorated over the period of the contract or the period covered by the income with appropriate monthly exclusions.

1. (1) With reference to commissions, wages or salary, the term earned income means gross earned income prior to deduction of any taxes or other personal and nonpersonal expenses incident to employment.

2. (2) With respect to self-employment, the term earned income means the total profit from a business enterprise, farming, etc., resulting from the gross income received less the business expenses, i.e.,total cost of the production of the income as defined in paragraph (b)(2) of this section.

   (b) Computation of net applicable income.

3. (1) In computing the amount of net applicable income to be applied against the estimate of needs, the following must be applied sequentially: The net amount remaining must be applied against public assistance needs in determining the amount of the assistance payment.

   1. (i) the prescribed work expense disregard; and
   2. (ii) the applicable amount of exempt earned income.
4. (2) For self-employed individuals, those expenses directly related to producing the goods or services, including expenses for inventory, and without which the goods or services could not be produced must be excluded to determine the amount of earned income. However, depreciation, personal business and entertainment expenses, personal transportation, purchase of capital equipment, and payments on the principal of loans for capital assets or durable goods are not excluded.

5. (3) Where the gross property cost of client-owned property used as the home exceeds the gross rent receipts, the difference is the public assistance recipient' s shelter need that is payable up to the agency maximum. When the gross rent received exceeds the gross property cost, the difference is earned income from self-employment and no amount is included as a shelter item in the client's budget estimate of need.

   (c) Projecting average income.

   The amount of earned income used to determine the public assistance grant will be based on an estimate of average monthly earnings. To project average monthly income, the social services district must average the most recent four weeks of earned income, or if there has been a change expected to last at least 30 days, use the new information regarding the amount of pay and the frequency of pay.