How Child Support is Calculated: A Step-by-Step Guide
In the wake of parental separation, their children are psychologically traumatized. It is a shared responsibility of both parents, or at least the one who is working, to provide for the child.
Child support means all those payments made from one parent to another for the upbringing of a child. This support is generally established by each state’s law, which applies a number of state formulas.
Child support, on the whole, involves the sums of both parents’ earnings, and the parent who has a lesser amount of time with the child is supposed to make the payment to the one with whom the child resides most of the time.
The Elements that Are Considered When Estimating Child Support
Income
Both parents must report their income in order to decide the average monthly child support payment obligations. Wages, salaries, bonuses, self-employment, severance pay, pensions, interest earnings, investment returns, and alimony are all considered.
Usually, disability benefits, workers’ compensation, and unemployment assistance are considered as well. But one would deduct for taxes, support for other children, union dues, or any other mandatory payroll deduction.
Timesharing Factors
In some states, child support is inversely proportional to the number of nights the child is in the home of the parent. This is the idea that a significant amount of time in one parent’s home would lessen the financial need for reimbursement for the time the child is living with the other parent.
The Age of The Child
Typically, parents are expected to pay support till children reach 18 years of age. They are also expected to pay for some expenses like college tuition even if the child is legally an adult.
Health Care Expenses
Any medical expenses can be shared between the parents, on top of a certain amount of child support. These could include premiums for child health insurance and medical expenses that are not covered by insurance.
Calculating Child Support
This number contains the amount to be paid in base child support. The application may allow adding health insurance, non-reimbursed health expenses, daycare expenses, and extracurricular expenses to that amount.
Income Shares Model
The following steps are involved when child support is calculated using the income shares model.
- Consider both parents’ monthly incomes.
- Find each parent’s percentage of the total income.
- Follow state regulations to set the amount of support due for that case.
- Then, multiply that fraction by each parent’s contribution to support the child.
- If one person has sole physical custody, the other parent pays a set amount. If joint physical custody exists, the number given in the previous step should be multiplied by 1.5; this is generally based on the notion that maintaining two households is much more expensive than maintaining just one.
In some instances, the state finds the precise amount owed to each parent by the other, based on how much time one parent has been with the child compared to the other.
Final Thoughts
Child support is the payment made by one parent to the other, in the event of a divorce, to support the upbringing of their children. This includes the expenses made for the growth and development of the child, including extracurricular activities and other purchases. Integration of net income, a needs assessment, consideration of expenses, and the use of a formula assist in deriving child support costs. In the long run, the children in question will surely benefit from such expenses.
It is important to seek the assistance of a good lawyer to ensure that your rights are protected during this process, and that you only have to pay a fair share of child support.
