Start with the current Illinois child-support rules
750 ILCS 5/505(a)(1.5) and (a)(3) govern the basic calculation and the treatment of income. Gross income generally includes income from all sources, subject to statutory exclusions. Net income is determined using the applicable tax method and permitted adjustments. The amount deposited after an employer's withholding is therefore not automatically the statutory net-income figure.
Illinois uses an income-shares model that considers both parents' incomes, the number of children, and the applicable parenting arrangement and adjustments. The Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services income-shares resources explain that the state replaced its former percentage model on July 1, 2017. HFS identifies March 20, 2026 as the effective date of its current tables and schedule.
That distinction matters when reading older opinions. A decision discussing 20% of one parent's income may still explain an income-classification issue, but that historical percentage is not today's automatic rule for one child. An existing order containing a percentage provision must still be read and followed according to its terms unless changed through the appropriate process.
The official statute displays both current text and an amendment effective January 1, 2027. This article uses the version in force on November 3, 2026. A calculation for a later period should use the law and tables applicable at that time. Our Illinois child-support statute guide provides broader background, and our Chicago child-support attorneys handle questions about establishing, enforcing and modifying support.
What records explain each kind of compensation?
A pay stub, brokerage statement and tax return can describe the same transaction differently. Bring the documents together before adding every number into one spreadsheet. The following are preparation questions, not automatic legal classifications.
| Compensation or transaction | Useful records and questions |
|---|---|
| Annual or quarterly bonus | Obtain the bonus plan, award notice, pay stub and year-end earnings statement. Identify the payment date, performance period and whether the award repeats. |
| Sales commissions | Compare commission statements with payroll or business records. Identify advances, recoverable draws, cancellations, chargebacks and actual payments. |
| Restricted stock or restricted stock units | Obtain the grant agreement, vesting and settlement schedule, share-delivery records and payroll entries. Identify conditions still attached to the award. |
| Stock options | Preserve the grant and exercise documents, exercise price, shares acquired, taxes withheld and any later sale records. |
| Sale of shares already owned | Identify when and how the shares were acquired, their basis, prior compensation reporting and the gain or loss. Gross sale proceeds alone do not answer the support question. |
| A transfer from savings or a brokerage account | Trace the origin of the money. Distinguish a new receipt from moving previously owned funds between accounts. |
An employer's description of an award is evidence, not a substitute for reading the entire plan. Two employees may both call an award “stock compensation” even though one has delivered shares and the other has a conditional future right. The analysis should identify the actual award rather than rely on a label in an email.
How bonuses and commissions fit into a support order
For a parent whose earnings fluctuate, begin with the order's exact wording. Does it set a monthly dollar amount? Does it also require payment from defined additional income? Does it identify gross or net compensation, tax deductions, a payment deadline, and documents that must be exchanged? Has a later order changed the original provision?
Section 505(a)(5) addresses uncertainty. A final support order must state support in dollar amounts. When the court finds that support cannot be expressed exclusively as a dollar amount because some or all of the obligor's net income is uncertain as to source, payment time or amount, it may add a percentage obligation to a specific dollar amount and enter orders needed to determine and enforce it. That is authority for a properly structured variable-income provision, not a license for either parent to choose a percentage independently. 750 ILCS 5/505(a)(5).
A provision that works in practice should answer concrete questions. Which payments are covered? What information accompanies a calculation? How are taxes handled? When is payment due? How are a commission reversal or a corrected payroll entry documented? Those details should be negotiated and presented for an appropriate order, or resolved by the court when disputed.
For example, imagine a salesperson receives a commission advance in March and a statement showing a chargeback in June. Looking only at March's deposit may conceal a later adjustment; looking only at June's lower paycheck may conceal the earlier payment. Assemble the full sequence and the governing agreement. Do not simply subtract the disputed amount from the next support payment.
A parent who earns commissions through a business may also need the analysis in our self-employed child-support guide. Employee compensation and business receipts should not be treated as interchangeable without examining the relevant records and statutory rules.
Must the court average several years of earnings?
Income averaging can help explain a recurring compensation pattern, but it is not an automatic three-year rule. In Vance v. Joyner, 2019 IL App (4th) 190136, paragraphs 70-76, the appellate court upheld the challenged income determination despite incomplete and inconsistent financial evidence. Paragraph 75 explains that a three-year average can be reasonable when income fluctuates widely, while recognizing that it is not the only reasonable method. Reliable figures are needed before a useful average can be calculated.
Vance involved a self-employed parent's records; it does not prescribe one formula for every commissioned employee. Its practical lesson is to provide a coherent history and explain why that history fairly represents the current situation.
Consider two hypothetical employees. One receives a seasonal bonus every December. The other received a single retention payment tied to remaining through a merger. The documents should reveal those differences. A chart showing payment dates, amounts, conditions and recurring components is more informative than selecting the highest year or the lowest month without explanation. A documented change in the compensation plan should be shown alongside the history, rather than hidden inside an average.
Stock awards require a timeline, not one blanket answer
An equity award can involve several distinct events: a grant, satisfaction of vesting conditions, exercise of an option, delivery of shares, and a later sale. Not every plan includes every event. Ask what rights and value existed at each stage, what was received, and what the support order says.
The published decisions below explain why “it was marital property” and “it appeared in a brokerage account” are each incomplete answers. They do not establish a universal rule that every unvested award counts immediately or that all restricted stock units must be treated identically. Modern award documents should be analyzed on their own facts.
Pratt: a property allocation does not automatically exclude later earnings
In In re Marriage of Pratt, 2014 IL App (1st) 130465, paragraphs 29-32, the First District affirmed the inclusion of earnings from restricted stock option sales in the child-support calculation. The settlement had purported to exclude restricted stock and options awarded as marital property from support income. The court held that exclusion contrary to public policy and rejected the argument that prior property division necessarily barred consideration of the later earnings.
Pratt relied on In re Marriage of Colangelo, 355 Ill. App. 3d 383 (2005), concerning realized distributions from options. These decisions make the classification and later transaction important; they do not make every dollar of every stock sale income. Pratt used the former support guidelines, so its percentages should not be imported into a new income-shares calculation.
Marsh: converting an existing asset at a loss is different
In In re Marriage of Marsh, 2013 IL App (2d) 130423, paragraphs 15-18, the court affirmed denial of a petition seeking additional support from a stock sale. The parent owned the shares before dissolution, and the evidence established that the sale produced a loss rather than a gain. The court distinguished a conversion of existing shares into cash from options that later vested and produced a realized distribution.
Marsh does not exempt all investments or all previously divided property. It shows why the acquisition history, nature of the asset and actual gain matter. A demand based solely on the brokerage statement's gross proceeds can miss the issue the court must decide.
McGrath: moving existing money is not necessarily receiving income
In In re Marriage of McGrath, 2012 IL 112792, paragraphs 13-18, the Illinois Supreme Court reversed a support calculation that treated regular withdrawals of existing savings as income. The withdrawn money already belonged to the parent. The court also explained that available assets could matter to a properly supported deviation from the guidelines. It expressly did not resolve the separate controversy about IRA distributions in footnote 2.
For a compensation dispute, keep the distinction clear: tracing previously owned funds is different from proving a new award, dividend or gain. McGrath is not a blanket exemption for retirement withdrawals, equity awards or investment returns.
Avoid counting the same compensation event twice
A useful reconciliation starts with a transaction-by-transaction timeline. Match the employer's earnings entries to award statements, share delivery or exercise records, brokerage activity and tax documents. Ask whether a payroll entry and a later brokerage entry represent separate economic receipts or different reporting of the same value.
Suppose an employee's records show shares delivered under an award and later sold. A worksheet that adds the full payroll entry to the full sale proceeds without explanation may overstate what occurred. Conversely, a worksheet that ignores the award because the shares were eventually sold may omit a relevant receipt. These are reasons to trace and reconcile, not predetermined conclusions about any particular plan.
Preserve the original statements, including supplemental basis information and transaction confirmations. Identify the specific shares or lots involved. If a tax return was amended or a payroll correction issued, retain both the original and corrected records and explain the difference. Tax treatment is part of the evidence, but the Illinois support question still requires its own legal analysis.
An attorney may recommend working with an accountant when several awards, years or employers overlap. Ask for an explanation that another reader can reproduce from the records. A large spreadsheet with unexplained adjustments may be less useful than a short schedule with clear references to the source documents.
Separate enforcement from a request to change support
If an existing order already requires a share of defined bonus or commission income, the immediate issue may be compliance with that order. Collect the relevant clause, payment records, required disclosures and the calculation of the claimed difference. Distinguish an unpaid obligation from an argument that future support should be higher.
If the current order does not resolve the issue, an attorney should assess clarification, modification or other appropriate relief. 750 ILCS 5/510(a) generally permits modification of support only for installments accruing after due notice of the filing of the modification motion, subject to the statute's provisions. Section 510(a)(1) provides the substantial-change-in-circumstances route; other statutory routes have their own conditions. A parent's private recalculation does not amend a court order.
The distinction works in both directions. A new bonus does not authorize the receiving parent to declare any amount immediately overdue without analyzing the order. A smaller commission or falling stock price does not authorize the paying parent to reduce a fixed obligation unilaterally. Get advice promptly about what relief fits the facts and the significance of notice and timing.
Keep support disputes separate from parenting exchanges. Use the case's authorized communication process for financial requests, and keep the request factual: identify the document, period and provision involved. Avoid accusations based only on a social-media post about a promotion or a company's publicly announced stock price.
Prepare a focused record set for your consultation
Bring the support judgment, incorporated settlement, later modifications and any pending motions. Then assemble recent payroll and year-end statements, the compensation plan, tax returns and schedules, equity award agreements, vesting or exercise statements, brokerage confirmations and records of payments already made.
Our Illinois divorce financial-affidavit guide explains how financial disclosure fits into a family case. A useful consultation packet also includes a one-page chronology and a short list of unresolved questions. Identify what you know from documents, what the other parent has stated, and what remains an assumption.
Do not access another person's private payroll, email or brokerage account without authorization. If necessary documents are unavailable, tell the attorney precisely what is missing and who likely holds them. Appropriate disclosure and discovery procedures can be evaluated within the case. Preserve records already lawfully available to you without editing their contents.
Common questions about variable compensation
Is a year-end bonus automatically excluded because it is not guaranteed?
No blanket exclusion follows from the word “discretionary.” The analysis examines the actual payment, governing statute and support order. Whether and how to account for an uncertain future payment is a separate question from classifying money already received.
Does every parent pay the same percentage of a bonus?
No. Current income-shares calculations and the specific order matter. Section 505(a)(5) permits a percentage component under its stated conditions; it does not supply one universal bonus rate.
Does dividing stock in the divorce end the child-support inquiry?
No. Pratt demonstrates that later earnings can remain relevant despite the earlier property division. Marsh demonstrates why an existing asset sold without a gain requires a different analysis. Read the award and transaction records before relying on either case.
Can a parent wait until tax season to disclose every payment?
Read the order's disclosure and payment terms, including any requirements specifically addressing additional compensation. An annual tax return should not be assumed to replace an earlier obligation imposed by the order. If the order is unclear about a particular award or document, ask counsel about obtaining clarification.
Free consultation about bonuses, commissions and stock compensation
Chicago Family Attorneys offers a free initial consultation for people seeking to hire an attorney. We can discuss whether your issue involves establishing support, interpreting a variable-income provision, enforcing an existing obligation or seeking a modification, and what records would help evaluate the next step.
Book a free consultation or call 312-965-5618. Bring the current order and a representative set of compensation documents. Representation fees and scope are confirmed separately; review our family-law pricing information for more about discussing costs.
This article provides general Illinois legal information as of November 3, 2026. It is not advice about a particular compensation plan or court order and does not create an attorney-client relationship. The applicable order, evidence and law control the result.