Income means gross cash income and includes earned income, military income (including pay and allowances), veterans’ benefits, Social Security benefits, unemployment compensation, and public assistance benefits.  Additional examples of gross cash income are listed below from the definition of “income” which appears in U.S. Bureau of the Census, Current Population Reports, Series P-60-185.

Definitions of Income

 

Income DOES include:

·         Total cash receipts before taxes from all sources (exceptions noted below)

·         Money wages or salary before deductions

·         Net income from non-farm self-employment

·         Net income from farm self-employment

·         Regular payments from Social Security or railroad retirement

·         Payments from unemployment compensation

·         Strike benefits from union funds

·         Workers’ compensation

·         Veterans benefits (exceptions noted below)

·         Public assistance (including Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), SNAP (Food Stamps), Emergency   Assistance money payments, and non-Federally   funded General Assistance or General Relief money payments)

·         Training stipends

·         Alimony

·         Child support

·         Military family allotments

·         Other regular support from an absent family member or someone not living in the household

·         Private pensions

·         Government employee pensions (including military retirement pay)

·         Regular insurance or annuity payments

·         College or university scholarships

·         Grants, fellowships, and assistantships

·         Dividends, interest, net rental income, net royalties, and periodic receipts from estates or trusts

·         Net gambling or lottery winnings.

  

Income DOES NOT include:

          ·         Capital gains

          ·         Assets drawn down as withdrawals from a bank

          ·         Sale of property (including a house or a car)

          ·         Tax refunds

          ·         Gifts, loans, lump-sum inheritances, one-time insurance payments, or compensation for injury

          ·         Noncash benefits such as:

o   Employer-paid or union-paid portion of health insurance or other employee fringe benefits

o   Food or housing received in lieu of wages

o   Value of food and fuel produced and consumed on farms

o   Imputed value of rent from owner-occupied non-farm or farm housing; and

o   Federal non-cash benefit programs as Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, school lunches, and housing assistance, and certain disability payments made to disabled children of Vietnam veterans as prescribed by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs