Know It Yourself…Child Support
- The amount of a monthly child support payment is determined by the court and normally based upon current income of the parents, health and welfare expenses, and any number of special considerations.
- Child support payments can be changed to reflect major changes in the life of the child or either spouse. But missing child support payments is a serious matter. It’ll make little difference to the court that the person making the payments is in jail or filing for bankruptcy or on active duty. The welfare of the child comes first.
- Child support payments by themselves have no tax effect. The paying parent can’t use them to adjust taxable income and the receiving parent isn’t taxed on them.
Child support payments—from one parent to another—are meant to ensure that both parents financially support their kids following a breakup. Generally, paternity must be established, but you do not have to have been married to owe or receive support for a child. The payments are meant to put the incomes and wealth of both parents toward the health and welfare of their kids. A parent cannot waive or withhold support. It is a legal obligation enforcing the right of a child to be cared for, fed, and clothed.
Child Support Payment
The child support order is a court document that is included as part of the marital settlement agreement. Usually the byproduct of a divorce decree or paternity judgment, it specifies how much a parent is to pay for child support, how often, and when. The obligation does not commence without a court order.
Either parent can be ordered to pay. Most often, the non-custodial parent makes payments to the custodial parent. Child support is usually payable on a monthly basis, traditionally in the form of a personal check, money order, or direct deposit. Many states now require that child support be paid via automatic paycheck deductions or wage assessments, if possible. Automated arrangements cut down on the need for enforcement actions, and municipalities are generally in favor of anything that reduces a couple’s likelihood of returning to court to resolve differences.
Calculating the Child Support
It's up to the court to decide the amount of a custody order. Each state has developed its own child support guidelines, most with a host of variables. Basically, the mathematical tables or formulas start with the respective incomes of both parents, and it gets complicated from there. (Even the computation of income varies considerably from state to state. Some use gross income; others use adjusted gross or net income.) To find how your state calculates child support, you can call the state Attorney General’s office, the family court in your area, or log onto your state’s website.
Getting a fair assessment of child support requires full disclosure. It starts with each parent completing financial statements or worksheets. The judge then takes the combined income information and applies the guidelines to calculate what a parent must receive (or pay). A legally binding order is made. The crucial question is how honest and accurate are the income worksheets presented to the court. With rational people, the worksheets are accurate and there is no rancor or dispute (or attorney involvement). Unfortunately, some parents choose not to be so cooperative. They fudge numbers that force the other parent to document the inaccuracy of the submitted income which can kick off a period of serious attorney participation.
In a perfect world, parents jointly make their decision as to the amount of child support which the judge will probably be happy to go along with, if it is your child’s best interest. In the opposite of a perfect world, people get greedy, children get de-prioritized, and the court must get more heavily involved. Some custodial parents try to use child support to finance hobbies, habits or other irrelevancies. That’s when the court becomes more than involved.
Child Support: Duration of Support
For the most part, child support payments usually last through the child's high school years. A few states have extended the time for financial responsibility even longer (up to 21, through college, or as a result of special needs, for example). Child support can be terminated if the child dies, joins the military, or gets married, or becomes emancipated or self-supporting.
A word or two about states that extend financial responsibility through college: Depending on the state’s laws and rules, one parent may be stuck paying all, some, or none of the tuition to a college or vocational school. If the non-custodial parent is ordered to pay the tuition, this cost could be heaped on top of the regular child support payments. The factors used to determine child support payments in general are often used to determine if tuition payments would be separate from, or included within, regular child support payments.
Visitation and Child Support: Two Separate Issues
As mentioned in the article Visitation 101, most courts keep a fire wall between the concepts of child support and visitation. They do not consider failure to pay child support to be sufficient grounds for curtailing the non-custodial parent’s right to visitation with his or her child. Visitation, just like child support, is considered a distinct element in the set of things that are in the best interest of the child.
Yes, the court is concerned that the non-custodial parent fulfills his or her financial obligations toward the health and welfare of the child. There are several resources for enforcing a support order. At the same time, visitation enables the child to develop and maintain a meaningful relationship with the non-custodial parent. Generally, failure on one front is not allowed to have a determinative affect on the other. It's a serious distinction custodial parents should recognize. "Frustration" of the right of the non-custodial parent to visit his or her child could, in extreme cases, lead to a change in the custody order.
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