Child Support Laws Have Changed
The amount paid for child support used to be driven by which parent held the title of “primary physical custodian”. That is no longer true.
The amount of child support paid is now generally driven by the number of overnights child spend at a parents house (less than 10% of the nights in a month, between 10% and 45% of the nights in a month, or 46% or more nights per month).
If a parent provides daycare for the children, those days are also part of the child support calculation.
This new law has tended to make shared physical custody more common, but in many situations, one parent remains the primary parent, still is responsible for most of the costs of the children and receives less money for support.
- With the new law, both parent’s gross income (used to be net income) are used to calculate support.
- Support is apportioned on the number of overnights the children spend with each parent. The law itself calculates time in percentages, but a good rule of thumb is that two weekend overnights and one weekday overnight, will mean that that parent will get a 12% parenting time adjustment.
- Support is specifically unlinked to what custody is called. “Joint physical custody”, “shared parenting time” “sole physical custody” are irrelevant to the computation of child support. They are relevant in determining where the child’s residence is and which parent/s has primary responsibility for the child’s care.
- The parent receiving the support remains solely obligated for the children's clothes, school supplies and activity costs, food at home, and all the other costs of raising children (school pictures, birthday parties, sports costs, driving). That is often, but not always, less under the new law than under the old law.
- If you are divorcing under the new law it is smart to also negotiate sharing those costs of raising the children because many parents who are not receiving much support still have very expensive food, clothing, sports, and school costs which can become a hardship for them.
- In apportioning health and dental insurance and costs, the Court first looks at both parents insurance coverage to determine which insurance plan is best for the children.
- The cost of paying for insurance premiums and uninsured costs and co-payments is computed on a percentage-of-total shared income basis. For example, the combined gross income of both parents = 100% of their income. The Court determines what percentage of that total gross income each party has (e.g. If the parents together earn 100,000 and one parent makes $70,000, that parent pays 70% of the insurance costs). The cost of insurance and non insured costs is that percentage of combined income each parent has, applied to the costs for premiums and uninsured medical and dental costs.
If Child Support is an issue for you, call Ballou Law Partners at 612-321-9800.
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