1. (a) Unless otherwise required by federal or state law, the "total gross income" of the family for purposes of determining eligibility means the monthly total of the following items listed.

   1. (1) Total gross earnings before deductions are made for taxes. These earnings include money, earnings of a child between 14 and 18 years old who is not in school, wages, or salary the family member receives for work performed as an employee. Wages or salaries include armed forces pay (including allotments from any armed forces received by a family group from a person not living in the household), commissions, tips, piece-rate payments, and cash bonuses earned. Overtime pay is estimated based on the person's history of receiving this pay.
   2. (2) Net income from non-farm self-employment. These earnings include gross receipts minus business-related expenses from a person's own business, professional enterprise, or partnership, which result in the person's net income. Gross receipts include the value of all goods sold and services given. Expenses include costs of purchased goods, rent, heat, light, power, depreciation charges, wages and salaries paid, business taxes (not personal income taxes or self-employment Social Security tax), and similar costs. The value of salable merchandise used by the owners of retail stores is not included as part of net income.
   3. (3) Net income from farm self-employment. These earnings include gross receipts minus operating expenses from operation of a farm by the client or the parent and his partners. Gross receipts include the value of products sold; governmental crop loans; and incidental receipts from the sale of wood, sand, mineral royalties, gravel, and similar items. Operating expenses include the cost of feed, fertilizer, seed and other farming supplies, cash wages paid to farm workers, depreciation, cash rent, interest on farm mortgages, repairs of farm buildings, farm-related taxes (not personal income taxes or self-employment Social Security tax), and similar expenses. The value of fuel, food, or other farm-related products used for the family's living expenses is not included as part of net income.
   4. (4) Social security and railroad retirement benefits. These benefits include Social Security pensions and survivor's benefits, permanent disability insurance payments made by the Social Security Administration (before deductions for medical insurance), and railroad retirement insurance checks from the federal government. Gross benefits from these sources are the amounts before deductions for Medicare insurance.
   5. (5) Dividends and interest. These earnings include dividends from stock holdings or membership in associations, interest on savings or bonds, periodic receipts from estates or trust funds, and net royalties. Such earnings are averaged for a 12-month period.

   6. (6) Income from rental of a house, homestead, store, or other property, or rental income from boarders or lodgers. These earnings include net income from rental property, which is calculated by prorating and subtracting the following from gross receipts:

      1. (A) prorated property taxes;
      2. (B) insurance payments;
      3. (C) bills for repair and upkeep of property; and
      4. (D) interest on mortgage payments on the property. Capital expenditures and depreciation are not deductible.
   7. (7) Interest income from mortgages or contracts. These payments include interest income the buyer promises to pay in fixed amounts over a period of time until the principal of the note is paid.
   8. (8) Public assistance payments. These payments include Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), refugee assistance, Social Security Insurance, and general assistance (such as cash payments from a county or city).
   9. (9) Pensions, annuities, and irrevocable trust funds. These payments include pensions or retirement benefits paid to a retired person or his survivors by a former employer or by a union, either directly or through an insurance company. Also included are periodic payments from annuities, insurance, or irrevocable trust funds. Gross benefits from civil service pensions are benefits before deductions for health insurance.
   10. (10) Veteran's pensions, compensation checks, and G.I. benefits. These benefits include money paid periodically by the Veteran's Administration to disabled veterans of the armed forces or to survivors of deceased veterans, subsistence allowances paid to veterans for education and on-the-job training and refunds paid to ex-servicemen as G.I. insurance premiums. The Commission or the contracted provider includes only that part of the educational allowance that is used for current living costs.
   11. (11) Educational loans and grants. These payments include money received by students as scholarships for educational purposes. The Commission includes only that portion of the money actually used for current living costs.
   12. (12) Unemployment compensation. This includes unemployment payments from governmental unemployment insurance agencies or private companies and strike benefits from union funds paid to people while they are unemployed or on strike.
   13. (13) Workers' compensation and disability payments. These payments include compensation received periodically from private or public insurance companies for on-the-job injuries.
   14. (14) Spousal maintenance or alimony.
   15. (15) Child support. These payments include court-ordered child support, any maintenance or allowance used for current living costs provided by parents to a minor child who is a student, or any informal child support payments made by an absent parent for the maintenance of a minor.
   16. (16) Cash support payments. These payments are regular cash support payments from friends or relatives received on a periodic basis more than three times a year.
   17. (17) Inheritance. This is net income from the parent's share of an inheritance.
   18. (18) Foster care payments. The total payment made to a parent on behalf of a legally assigned foster child or foster adult is counted as income.
   19. (19) Sale of property. This includes capital gains from sale of property.
2. (b) Income to the family that is not included in subsection (a) of this section is excluded in determining the total gross income. Income does not include food stamps.

Source Note:The provisions of this §809.93 adopted to be effective February 11, 1999, 24 TexReg 800.