Hi....

My husband and I have been married for 3 years. He was married before and has a 9 year old son. We pay child support of $457.00 . We live in Montana but the child and his mother live in South Dakota and the child support is figured there. We recently purchased a farm/ranch together and more livestock. I am concerned about what this will do to our child support. (The child's mother is a Registered Nurse so is not struggling the way many mothers do) In the past we have filed our taxes solely with him as sole proprietor with a schedule C. Do we have to file taxes as a partnership for half of the income to be considered mine? Would they view my husband paying me a wage per year as dodging child support??

I think you may also want to pose this as a tax matter. If you are married, it sounds like you would file married filing jointly and the ranch would be filed as a business activity on its own separate schedule. On that schedule, you would list income, expenses, take depreciation for the land and livestock and other animals, vehicles used in the business, etc... and if wages are paid as part of the business activity they are reported there. You sound like you would be a 1099 emplyoee and the wages would then be listed as income on the first page of the 1040. Usually the profit or loss amount from that page will end up on the first page of the 1040. There are deductions taken based on if you itemize or use the standard deductions. Whoever does the taxes will decide which is better to use in this situation. At the end of all of those calculations, you have taxable income.--- For child support purposes, you should plug in the numbers to the child support worksheet and present to the court for modification of child support based on changed circumstances, more based on your marriage and changes to lifestyle and income. Below are links to South Dakota child support information and calculators.
http://www.state.sd.us/social/DCS/
http://www.state.sd.us/social/DCS/Services/Obligation/index.htm
http://www.alllaw.com/calculators/Childsupport/south_dakota/