Nolo's Essential Guide to Divorce - Emily Doskow [91]
Factoring In Changing Circumstances
You can make agreements in advance about temporary reductions or increases in support tied to certain events. Here are a few examples.
When the kids are away. You might agree to a provision that if the kids go off to summer camp or live away from their regular residence for more than a month, child support is reduced for that month (depending, of course, on who's paying for camp). It doesn't make sense to have a reduction for less than a month, because the expenses that the custodial parent pays won't be that different if the kids are only gone for a week or two. The custodial parent still has the regular expenses of running the household, which is for the kids' benefit.
College. When the kids go off to college, they may be living in a dorm. You could agree that support payments will be made to the school rather than to the other parent during the months that the child is at school, and will revert to the custodial parent during the summer or other periods that the child is at home.
Financial conditions. You can agree to an automatic increase in support to keep pace with inflation, or agree that if the paying spouse's income goes down by a certain percentage, support will be reduced by that same percentage.
How Courts Decide Support Amounts
Given that judges decide most child support awards by looking at guidelines that you can look at yourselves, there's not much point in wasting your time and money arguing in court about it. But before you begin estimating child support and negotiating with your spouse, it helps to know what a court would do and how judges make their decisions.
Basic Support Guidelines
Every state has a formula for calculating child support. The formulas themselves can be quite complicated, but it's pretty easy to find the amount by using software or websites for your state. Some helpful resources are listed in "Estimating Child Support in Your Family," below.
The biggest factor in calculating child support is how much the parents earn. Some states consider both parents' income, but others consider only the income of the noncustodial parent. In most states, the percentage of time that each parent spends with the children is another important factor.
Most states consider at least some of these other factors in calculating child support:
• child support or alimony either parent receives from a previous marriage
• whether either parent is paying child support or alimony from a previous marriage
• Whether either parent is responsible for children from a previous (or subsequent) marriage
• which parent is paying for health insurance, and the cost
• which parent is paying day care costs, and the cost
• whether either parent is required to pay union dues or has other amounts deducted from paychecks
• ages of the children
• whether either parent receives irregular income such as bonuses or incentive pay, or expects severance pay or other lump-sum payments, and
• whether either parent lives with a new partner or spouse who contributes to household expenses.
Some states use very individual factors-for example, New York looks at local taxes and also alimony that one parent is paying in the current marriage, not just previous marriages (this is unusual; most courts believe that child support is more important than alimony and calculate child support first, and then evaluate what's left in setting alimony). And states define "income" differently-some use gross income, some use net, and some include gifts, bonuses, and overtime while others do not. If a parent has significant investment income, it may be counted as income for purposes of calculating child support.
Setting Support Higher or Lower Than the Guidelines
If you think that the guidelines shouldn't apply for some reason but your spouse doesn't agree with you, you'll have to tell it to the judge. Judges are allowed to deviate from the guidelines if there