She is calling my stance on her mileage pay "ugly" -- I insist on it being included as part of her income, and according to my lawyer, it meets state guidelines.
Ok - I can understand you wanting to use this as a bargaining chip, or perhaps you just want to stick it to her since she's the one ending the marriage. BUT - if you take the emotion out of it and just look at it logically - mileage pay is not really income. It is reimbursement for the additional expenses involved in operating a vehicle, wear and tear, and buying gas for the travel, no?
How much does she get paid for her mileage? Let's say she drives an additional 12,000 miles a year that is work-related. In addition to,say, $2500 worth of gas, she loses maybe an extra 1/10 of the value of her car from those miles - say $2,000 on a $20,000 car. Add in additional car maintenance, tires, oil change and repairs for those extra 12,000 miles - add at least another $500 - $1,000. So in reality - at least the first 40-50cents per mile is just covering her expenses and not real income to her.
So it would not really be fair to include that in her income calculations. It would be like you having a shop, and your income being calculated on your gross receipts rather than on your profit after you paid for the items you sell.
